A MAN has been jailed for 22 years for helping to move heroin into and around east London as part of a drug trafficking ring.

Metropolitan Police uncovered a 96.7kg haul of heroin – worth more than �5million on the streets of London – after tracking the gang for months.

Hikmet Sevim, 45, of Thurlow Gardens, Hainault, was tasked with transporting large bundles of the heroin once it arrived in the UK.

It is believed the drugs had come from Europe via Turkey and Romania.

Sevim was seen helping to transfer a number of cardboard boxes from a Mitsubishi Carisma into a van on March 4.

It was that day Sevim was arrested after the boxes were found to be packed with �5million of heroin.

Last week, Sevim was jailed for 22 years at Snaresbrook Crown Court after being convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs following a 12-week trial.

According to police, who seized a number of cars along with �187,000 in cash, the gang of three men and two women had comfortable lifestyles. The lucrative, illegal business was run from a flat in Raven Row, Spitalfields.

Det Insp Chris Jones said: “These convictions, coupled with the seizure of such a significant quantity of heroin, will have seriously undermined the activities of a number of criminal networks across London.”

Delroy Small, 33, of Garnham Close, Stoke Newington, and Shelon Morris, 34, of Mare Street, London Fields, were both jailed for 18 years after being found guilty of drug trafficking.

Harold Morris, 46, of Glyn Road, Homerton, was also jailed for 18 years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Florina Burducea, 39, of Pembury Hotel, Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, was jailed for 22 years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.