LONDON - Charlie Kray, elder brother of the former gangland twins, Reggie and Ronnie, was jailed for 12 years yesterday for masterminding a £39 million cocaine plot.
The 70 year old pensioner went to jail still protesting his innocence and lawyers said they would appeal against the conviction, which could see him die in jail.
But Judge Michael Carroll, sentencing Kray at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday, told him he had been convicted on overwhelming evidence".
He was convicted last week of offering to supply five kilos of high purity cocaine every fortnight for two years. Kray was caught after a lengthy undercover police operation last year, culminating in the delivery of two kilos of cocaine to an undercover policeman at an Essex hotel.
During the five week trial, the court heard from 28 character witnesses for Kray, including a former gangland enforcer, Mr "Mad" Frankie Fraser.
The Spice Girls, voices of the dead, Ronnie Kray's missing brain and other stories also featured. Kray's two accomplices, Ronald Field and Robert Gould, pleaded guilty to supplying and were sentenced to nine years and five years respectively.