An exchange of drugs at an M25 motorway service station was being watched by police.

Once they swooped, £480,000-worth of cocaine was seized and two men have been jailed for a total of 13 and a half years.

Evaldas Stanionis and Arunas Zemaitis were part of an organised crime gang bringing cocaine into Kent, Maidstone Crown Court heard yesterday.

On November 27 last year, officers observed Stanionis leaving home to travel to the Clacket Lane service station near Westerham in a Volvo V40.

Once there, he stopped in the car park and stood outside his vehicle.

They then witnessed Zemaitis approach the Volvo, carrying a backpack, before he sat in a rear passenger seat while Stanionis kept watch.

He then exited the vehicle and each offender went their separate ways.

Stanionis was followed back to Chatham and was approached by plain-clothed officers after he stopped in a car park in New Cut.

The officers searched his vehicle and found a bag which Zemaitis had left in the back.

It contained three food boxes each containing a 1kg block of cocaine.

Three mobile phones were also seized and quantities of amphetamine and cannabis were found at Stanionis's home in Rye, East Sussex.

The amphetamine was estimated to have a street value of around £8,500.

Zemaitis, a lorry driver for a firm based in Lithuania, was seen returning to a lorry park at the same service station.

Checks on his vehicle showed he had arrived in Dover, via Dunkirk in France, several hours earlier.

He was arrested later when he attempted to board a return ferry in Dover.

Stanionis, 52, of Cinque Ports Street in Rye, admitted four offences related to the supply of cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine. He was sentenced to seven and a half years.

Zemaitis, 49, from Lithuania, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine. He was sentenced to six years.

"These substances would have made their way onto our streets and, once sold, would have provided a lucrative return for the offenders."

Detective Inspector Emma Lawry said: "These two men were part of a sophisticated and well organised crime group that plotted to bring class A drugs into our county.

"The drugs seized will now be destroyed.

"These substances would have made their way onto our streets and, once sold, would have provided a lucrative return for the offenders.

"Instead, an organised crime group has taken a considerable financial hit."

Read more: All the latest news from Sevenoaks