A KENT Haulier jailed for 20 years for smuggling drugs is expected to be questioned by murder squad detectives.

George Taylor, 49, of The Poplars, London Road, Wrotham, claimed during his four-week trial at Canterbury Crown Court that he was duped by Kenneth Harvey over a £500,000 drugs operation.

But the jury heard that Harvey had been shot dead in Battle, East Sussex, before standing trial for drug smuggling.

John Dodd, prosecuting, said: “On August 18, Harvey, who had been arrested and charged, was shot dead. Investigations into his murder continue.”

Customs officials tracked Taylor when he made a trip to Zeebrugge, Belgium, on January 13 2003 in his Mercedes. He met up with the driver of lorry and a trailer at a garage.

Taylor then shadowed the trailer towards Calais and when it reached the freight lanes he diverted to Coquelles, Calais.

Customs officers searched the lorry and discovered almost 10kg of pure cocaine hidden in the axles.

Mr Dodd said the drug with a street value between £500,000 and £600,000 had been hidden inside specially made cylinders ordered by Taylor, who had been trading from home as JJOG Transport.

In October he contacted Amari Metals at Swanley and paid over £90 for a aluminium tubing. Later that month, Taylor asked Goodland Engineering in Tonbridge to make 12 cylinders to precise specifications. Six were found in the trailer.

Taylor, who denied smuggling but was convicted, had told Goodland Engineering that the tubes were to transport computer chips for a client.

He later returned to the engineering company with a prototype of a tool he wanted them to make. The tool was found inside his car when he was arrested as he sat in the Mercedes at the Channel Tunnel terminal at Cheriton, near Folkestone.

The father-of-five has served jail sentences for drugs offences and still owes Customs more than £400,000 from the 1990s.

Mr Dodd said in 1991, Taylor used his expertise and adapted fuel tanks to smuggle cannabis into the UK.

But he was not tried until 1995 after he “decamped” to Spain and had to be extradited. He was then jailed for seven and a half years.

Judge Anthony Webb told him: “The jury has now rejected the evidence you gave. You were clearly the organiser of this importation. This was an extremely sophisticated operation.”