Neals Strik should know next week if facing a two-year ban from athletics is the least of his worries.

That?s when a judge in his homeland, Holland, is due to deliver the verdict in the long-distance runner?s trial for smuggling cocaine between Guatemala and the Netherlands.

If the prosecution gets its wish, Strik ? who tested positive for the same drug after placing third for the second successive year in the International Half-Marathon here in January ? would receive a nine-year jail term (four or five years of actual prison time).

During two days of court hearings last week in Utrecht, Strik confessed to organising cocaine shipments from Guatemala to the Netherlands via Mexico. He testified that he didn?t do the smuggling himself but rather employed couriers who concealed about four kilos of the drug in specially-designed vests on each trip.

About 110 kilos were smuggled in this manner and Strik revealed he paid couriers 10,000 guilders (US$4,500) per shipment.

Producing a 7,000-page dossier on Strik, the police said they had been monitoring his drug ring since 2000, including listening in on conversations on mobile phones. They disclosed that drugs were discovered in various hiding places in the wooded environs of Strik?s hometown, Baarn.

Nine persons, including Strik?s father and trainer, Rob, have been held in connection with this case and, according to Dutch journalist, Rolf Volkskrant, who is following the case and has been providing information for , prosecutors are also seeking an 18-month sentence for the elder Strik who was too ?emotional? and refused to attend the trial.

Another of his sons, Lars, is also wanted by Dutch police in relation to the same offences.

Meanwhile, Strik?s doping case has still not been heard by the Dutch athletics federation who are now coming under pressure from the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) to expedite the issue.

Strik was provisionally suspended following positive cocaine tests in his A and B samples after participating in Bermuda?s annual athletics showpiece, International Race Weekend.

However, he and Brazil?s Luiz Carlos Ramos ? who tested positive for nandrolone after retaining his International Marathon title ? were both entitled to hearings before their respective national federations. Ramos? result was upheld and he has been banned from competition for two years.

A month after competing here, Strik was arrested on the criminal charges for which he is now on trial and this has complicated the Dutch national athletics federation?s probe. The decision on Strik?s final suspension also rests with his federation and, if confirmed, would be retroactive to the date of his drug test.

Strik?s lawyer has suggested his client ?was not sniffing coke? but rather that ?while working on the pure stuff it could have entered his system via his hands?.

Volkskrant noted that next year the World Anti-Doping Agency?s (WADA) code will come into effect in the international sports. Under these regulations, any athlete found guilty of drug-trafficking could be slapped with a life ban from sport.