The brother of SAS TV hardman Ant Middleton has been jailed after being caught dropping off a rucksack full of £700,000-worth of cocaine he brought across the Channel.

Michael Middleton, 41, was caught red-handed by police handing over 7kg of the class A drug to accomplice Ervis Hoxha, 31, in Heston, west London.

Earlier on the evening of his arrest on March 12, Middleton couriered the illicit narcotics through the Eurotunnel as he drove from Calais to Folkstone in Kent. He then drove to Heston and parked up, before getting out of the car with a rucksack filled with cocaine - all while being watched by officers.

When he got into the passenger seat of Hoxha's car, Met Police and National Crime Agency (NCA) officers arrested both men.

As well as the drugs, officers seized almost £7,000 in cash from Hoxha's car, the NCA said.

Your Local Guardian: Michael Middleton has been jailedMichael Middleton has been jailed

When searching Hoxha's home in Tooting, south London, police found a further £1,500 in cash and more evidence of drug dealing, including plastic wraps, a drug press, scales and a heat sealing machine.

Forensic examination of Hoxha and Middleton's phones found that both were encrypted devices, which are commonly used to undertake criminal activity.

Both men admitted to supplying class A drugs at an earlier court hearing, the NCA said.

Another man, who was in Middleton's car on the night of the arrests, was fined after pleading guilty to possession of a class A drug.

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Middleton's younger brother, Ant, is the star of Channel 4's SAS: Who Dares Wins and has himself been jailed for assaulting two police officers outside a nightclub.

The ex-special forces trooper was handed a 14-month prison sentence in 2013 for the attack near a taxi rank in Chelmsford, Essex.

At Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, his sibling, Michael Middleton, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison while Hoxha was jailed for three years and nine months.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony O'Sullivan, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: "Drugs, cash and violence are a vicious cycle that all go hand-in-hand. The OCP is acting swiftly to arrest criminals and break the link between all the three factors.

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"The NCA and Met will continue to work together to stop organised criminals profiting on the supply of drugs, which in turn will help reduce violent crime across London and the UK."

Ant, 39, served in the Special Boat Service, the Royal Marines and 9 Parachute Squadron Royal, before becoming a private security contractor and then one of the main military instructors on the hit Channel 4 show.

He has recently courted controversy over comments about the Black Lives Matter protests and the coronavirus, putting his role as the Navy's chief cadet under threat.