Police used cat biscuits to trap a gang of drug dealers who were sentenced yesterday for conspiring to supply ecstasy, a court heard.

The total seizure of tablets, with an estimated street value of £800,000, was detected during an international law enforcement operation.

We reported yesterday how the gang of Newport men who masterminded what was Wales' biggest ever drug-running operation were sentenced to a total of more than 20 years.

The seizure was big enough to provide every 18 to 21-year-old in the area with a single tablet.

Newport Crown Court heard that a Dutch woman had brought six boxes to a DHL depot in Ham, Belgium, on July 27 2006, declaring that they contained books.

She stated that they were to be collected by a Dutchman from DHL Park Royal, London.

The Belgium Federal Police were called in and discovered 40 packs in each of the boxes of 46.4kg of ecstasy.

The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency was contacted and the boxes allowed into the country for the contents to be analysed.

Forensic scientists found around 200,000 ecstasy tablets.

The packaging was then painstakingly reconstructed using cat biscuits as a substitute for the ecstasy.

To read more on this story click here.