A NORTHOLT drug smuggler has lost a bid to have the length of his prison sentence reduced.

Rajpal Singh Bhatia, who kept £3.6m worth of ketamine sent from India in a storage container, made his bid at London's Criminal Appeal Court.

Bhatia was the UK arm of an operation to import large quantities of the class C drug, delivered to him hidden inside boxes of saris.

The 39-year-old, of Rectory Park Avenue, was caught after officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit searched a container he had hired at a self storage facility in West Drayton.

It had been rented five days before the raid last May and investigations revealed he had collected the shipment of saris from India from a local freight company.

Bhatia was jailed for 11 years at Reading Crown Court after being convicted in November last year.

His appeal was rejected by three of the country's top judges who said the term was severe but not excessive.

Bhatia claimed he believed the drugs were a legal medicinal powder imported by his cousin to evade tax.

He said he only discovered it when he opened the consignment and claimed he was waiting for someone to come and collect it, a story disbelieved by the jury.

The trial judge said it was crystal clear Bhatia played a leading role in the UK arm of the enterprise and that he had organised delivery of a number of consignments to the UK.

Judge John Milford QC said the sentence was appropriate in all the circumstances and Bhatia could not complain about its length.