AN outwardly respectable IT engineer leading a double life as an international drug smuggler, was unmasked during a police sting Ethelbert Nzeagwu, aged 42, was caught as he signed for a parcel of drugs sent to his home in Cooke Square, Erith.

But, unknown to him, an Old Bailey jury was told, the Parcel Force employee who delivered the package, was an undercover police officer.

Nzeagwu denied conspiracy to fraudulently evade prohibition of the importation of drugs between March 1 and August 18, 2007.

The court heard how Nzeagwu, who had come to Britain from Nigeria in 1997 to study computing at Greenwich University, was receiving and passing on £25,000 packages of cocaine, sent from South America.

They were sent from Brazil and passed through various European distribution centres, including Coventry.

But Customs officers intercepted one of the packages, containing 293g of cocaine, after it arrived at Coventry International Airport in August 2007.

Police staged the delivery of the parcel, to Nzeagwu, which was addressed to Paterson Alberta.

Nzeagwu was also linked to another parcel opened in Frankfurt three months earlier, containing 233g of cocaine.

Bexley police’s crime squad said there had been at least five deliveries made to Nzeagwu’s home between March 1 and August 18 2007.

Nzeagwu was buying the drugs from a man in Brazil known as “Prince”.

Prosecutor Edward Connell said: “There is a pattern whereby Prince sends a consignment of drugs using Parcel Force parcels containing cocaine, addressed to differently named recipients, but always using the defendant’s home address.”

After the cocaine was found in the Coventry parcel, it was delivered by an undercover woman police officer.

When she asked if he was Paterson Alberta, Nzeagwu initially said ‘yes’, but then said Alberta was his cousin.

Despite that, he signed for the parcel as ‘P. Alberta’ and also printed the name.

Police checked his mobile phones and found a text message from Prince with the name Luis Paul and a number which was found to be a Parcel Force delivery code.

This parcel, addressed to Luis Paul at Nzeagwu’s address, was intercepted in Germany and also contained cocaine.

Nzeagwu, who gained his degree and became a British citizen, was working as an IT instalment engineer.

Jailing him for nine years Judge Richard Hawkins QC said: “The public must know the penalty for getting involved in this sort of offending.”