A MAN from near Selby was charged today with drug smuggling offences following a record £32 million seizure of cocaine.

Peter Carine, 49, from Hensall, is one of four men who have been arrested and charged in connection with the 500-kilo haul - the largest ever to be smuggled into the UK by air.

Undercover Customs officials recovered the drugs at Southend Airport, Essex, after six suitcases were thrown on a runway from the back of a plane on Tuesday evening.

The armed Customs men, who were acting on a tip-off, swooped on a Boeing 707 plane, which had touched down shortly after 9pm after travelling from Jamaica via the Canary Islands.

A Customs spokesman said after the raid that it was by far the biggest single seizure of cocaine made from an aircraft and it had been a sophisticated operation.

Two of the other men charged are British: Peter Carine's brother-in-law, Christopher Barrett-Jolly, 54, from Wellington, Somerset, and Martin John Lake, 60, from Storrington, West Sussex.

The other man charged was a Nigerian, David Ogundipe, 45. Customs officers said they were still questioning a Serb man in connection with the seizure.

The four men were due to appear before Southend magistrates later today, the Customs spokesman said.

All were charged with smuggling cocaine into the UK under the Customs and Excise Management Act.

Updated: 14:54 Thursday, October 18, 2001