Driver jailed for cocaine smuggled in Lego delivery

A lorry driver who tried to smuggle £2.9m worth of cocaine in a lorry carrying an order of Lego has been jailed.

Feruz Kadirov, 33, from Uzbekistan, was sentenced to nine years and nine months, after admitting smuggling the drugs, in a legal shipment which was due to be delivered to a shop in Corby, Northamptonshire.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said 35kg (77Ilbs) of cocaine was found hidden under the mattress in his bunk and behind the outer fridge motor.

He was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday.

The NCA said Kadirov was stopped by Border Force officers on 17 July in the Eastern Docks in Dover after travelling from Belgium with 50 pallets of a legitimate consignment of Lego.

Officers then found 20 blocks weighing - 1kg (2.2Ibs) - of cocaine under his mattress and 15 more behind the outer fridge motor.

Tracey Gasson, the operations manager for the NCA, said Kadirov was a "crucial member" of an organised crime group.

"Removing and destroying the drugs also deprives the [organised crime group] of profits which cannot now be put back into other criminal conspiracies.

"Greed is at the absolute centre of these offences. Drugs gangs don't care at all about the horrific effect they have on our communities and the lives they wreck," she added.

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