THREE weeks after drug smuggler Delroy Thompson was caught at Gatwick Airport, a gunman went to his home in Oxford and threatened to kill him, Croydon Crown Court was told.

He was now happy to be safely locked up in prison, said his lawyer.

Thompson, 48, of Herschel Crescent, Littlemore, admitted illegally importing almost 37kg of cannabis worth about £78,000 and was jailed for three years.

Angus Bunyan, prosecuting, said Thompson and his wife, Evelyn Jones, arrived at Gatwick on October 29 on a flight from Jamaica.

He said: "A customs officer noticed suspicious odours coming from their luggage and he followed the progress of their suitcases from the carousel to the nothing-to-declare green channel, where they were stopped. A search was carried out and 48 packages of the drug were discovered.

"When interviewed, Thompson, said he had been approached by some men and was told to bring the cases to the UK, otherwise he would never leave Jamaica."

Edmund Vickers, defending, said there had been a police report of an armed man going to his flat looking for him, saying he intended to kill him.

"He has been very co-operative with Customs and has given a full account of what happened," he added.

"He much prefers to be in custody than at home where someone could punish him. He committed the offence under pressure. It was not done for money.

"It was done because he had been told the only way he would get back to the UK would be in a box."

Recorder Daphne Wickham said it was up to the Home Office to decide if Thompson, who holds a Jamaican passport but has indefinite leave to remain here, should be deported.