A Tooting-based drugs ring has been smashed after five people were jailed for plotting to smuggle £120,000 worth of cocaine into the UK.

The gang were rumbled after police followed Jennifer Weekes, 48, of Childebert Road, Tooting, after she arrived at Gatwick Airport from Barbados with her young son on September 20, 2009.

Within hours of returning to her Tooting address, Mrs Weekes, was visited by John Charles, 40, who emerged minutes later carrying a plastic bag.

He drove away in his car but was stopped nearby by a waiting police car.

Inside the plastic bag, officers found three packages covered with birthday wrapping paper - the packages contained a hard, white substance.

Another bag was found in the car which contained benzocaine - a chemical commonly used to mix with cocaine to increase the quantity of the drug.

When police returned to Weekes' flat they found £13,000 in cash, receipts for designer clothing and documentation relating to nine trips to Barbados in the previous 18 months.

The mother-of-one pleaded guilty to conspiring to import Class A drugs and was handed a seven-year sentence.

Detective Inspector Steve Miles said: "This action has disabled an organised criminal network that brazenly trafficked class A drugs into the UK.

"This illustrates our determination to reduce the harm to communities and the availability of hard drugs."

Police quickly uncovered the rest of the smuggling ring and arrested her co-conspirators Alexander McGuffie, 35, of Hillbury Road, Balham, and her nephew Adrian Weekes, 39, also from Childebert Street.

They were jailed for 15 and 13 years respectively, having pleaded not guilty to conspiring to import Class A drugs.

Charles, from Fulham, and a fifth defendant, Jagjit Rayit, from Catford, also admitted conspiring to import and were jailed for eight and eleven years respectively.

The five defendants were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on December 9.