A PAINTING of Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor was used in an attempt to smuggle a kilo of cocaine headed for Tottenham.

The wooden-framed portrait of the Premiership star was sent from Togo, in west Africa, with a forwarding address in Haringey.

But UK Border Agency officers discovered it concealed £2,850 worth of the Class A drug when it intercepted the ploy on June 29, 2010.

Brodie Clark, head of the border agency, said: "These smuggling attempts show the lengths organised criminals will go to in a bid to get drugs into the UK.

"Criminals are prepared to invest large sums of money to come up with ever better concealment methods because they know the potential profits from the awful trade in harmful drugs are considerable."

The information was published as part of a list of the border agency's most unusual cases in 2010 to raise awareness of the skills and technology used to keep drugs out of the country.

It is also a warning to smugglers of the penalties those caught could face.

Some of the most creative smuggling attempts included cocaine disguised as peanuts, stuffed into yams, and hidden inside ornaments.