An HGV driver attempted to smuggle £2.9 million worth of cocaine inside a lorry carrying a delivery of Lego.
Feruz Kadirov, 43, an Uzbekistan national, was jailed following a National Crime Agency investigation after officers discovered 35 kilograms of cocaine hidden in his vehicle.
Kadirov was stopped by Border Force officers on 17 July as his HGV arrived at the Eastern Docks in Dover, coming from Belgium. The lorry carried a legitimate consignment of 50 pallets of Lego destined for a shop in Corby, Northamptonshire.
Officers found 20 1kg blocks of cocaine hidden under the mattress in Kadirov’s bunk, and 15 more concealed behind the outer fridge motor.
He admitted smuggling Class A drugs and was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison 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 organised crime group of profits which cannot now be put back into other criminal conspiracies.
Greed is at the absolute centre of these offences. Drug gangs do not care at all about the horrific impact they have on our communities and the lives they wreck.”
