Lego lorry headed for Corby stuffed with nearly £3m of cocaine
An HGV driver tried to smuggle blocks of cocaine in a lorry transporting a consignment of Lego to Corby.
Uzbekistan national Feruz Kadirov has been imprisoned after 35kg of cocaine hidden in his vehicle.
Kadirov was stopped by Border Force officers on July 17 this year as his HGV arrived at the Eastern Docks in Dover after travelling from Belgium.
Inside was a legitimate consignment of 50 pallets of Lego due to be delivered to a business in Corby. Officers found 20 x 1kg blocks of the Class A drug hidden under the mattress in Kadirov’s bunk, and 15 more behind the outer fridge motor.
The National Crime Agency was called in to investigate.
The agency has not provided any more details about the final destination of the lorry.
The 43-year-old admitted smuggling Class A drugs and on Thursday (September 11) was jailed for nine years and nine months at Canterbury Crown Court.
NCA operations manager Tracey Gasson said: “Through the brilliant detection work by Border Force and the NCA investigation, we have removed Kadirov who was a crucial member of his organised crime group.
“Removing and destroying the drugs also deprives the OCG 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 affect they have on our communities and the lives they wreck.”