The judge acknowledged that Brian Wright might die in jail when he imposed a 30-year-sentence. Wright (30) was the Irish-born boss of the most successful global cocaine trafficking network ever discovered in Britain.
At Woolwich Crown Court Judge Peter Moss told Wright: "You were a master criminal; manipulative, influential and powerful. I accept that you will be a very much older man when you are entitled to be released. I accept too . . . the possibility that you may not live that long.
"Nevertheless, cocaine abuse continues to cause unquantifiable misery to tens of thousands of victims of other crimes committed by those using or seeking to use [ it]. Those who import and distribute it call upon themselves lengthy terms of imprisonment.
"You played for the very highest stakes and won, for a number of years, a luxury lifestyle. You knew the consequences of detection and conviction."
The judge said he took into account Wright's age and health before sentencing him to 30 years on each of the two counts, to run concurrently.
Nicknamed "The Milkman" because he always delivered, he was found to be the criminal mastermind behind the Wright Organisation, overseeing the shipment of tonnes of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of pounds from South America using luxury yachts.
His conviction yesterday of conspiracy to evade prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug and conspiracy to supply drugs, marked the complete dismantling of his gang - and the final chapter in an "unprecedented" 11-year customs investigation which took officers all over the world.
After the Sea Mist arrest in Cork, police and customs later learned that another yacht, Casita, had sailed from the Caribbean to Britain earlier that summer with a 600kg load of cocaine, also destined for the Wright Organisation.
Over the next two years, four further boatloads of the class A drug were smuggled ashore under the control of Wright's gang, Customs said.
Wright was a well-known figure in horse racing circles and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous - including comedian Jim Davidson, who gave evidence in his defence at his two-month trial.
The prosecution claimed that Wright - whose main address was Chelsea, west London - used horse-racing as a "facade".
He was earlier banned from going to racing meetings and liaising with jockeys and trainers because of alleged evidence that he was "previously involved in serious incidents that defrauded the betting public", the Jockey Club said.
The court heard that Wright was currently held in the high-security section of Belmarsh Prison where he spends 22 hours a day alone in his cell and is often strip-searched. He said he has had a pacemaker fitted and suffers from neck and chest pain and an illness called Barrett's Oesophagus.
Euan Stewart, director of criminal investigations for Customs, said afterwards that they were "delighted" with sentence. - (PA)