More background.
The court heard that Sels had been given a suspended prison sentence in Belgium for possession of cannabis and having a weapon some six months before the cocaine plot.
In January 2015, police had raided his home and found 103 cannabis plants, scales, bags and a lecture on cultivating the drug as well as a forbidden weapon.
Rupert Hallowes, mitigating, told how Sels had a “colourful career” as a top helicopter pilot.
Previously, he flew high level dignities around the world and during the Cold War, he had been sent on secret missions with the SAS, he said.
The defendant, who lost his wife eight years ago, retired on an army pension but continued to fly commercially.