A driver who tried to smuggle £7.2million worth of cash hidden in a load of Kim Kardashian’s Skims has been jailed for 13.5 years.
Border officers found 90kg of the drugs when they stopped 40-year-old Jakub Konkel’s lorry at Harwich International Port, Essex, on September 4. The perpetrator had hidden the cocaine inside a perfectly legal shipment of Skims products from the Netherlands, with the intention of transporting it to the UK for further trafficking.
Konkel, originally from Kartuzy in northern Poland, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and broke down in tears in the dock as his sentence was announced at Chelmsford Crown Court.
The background of the business and the remuneration
Judge Richard Wilkin said Konkel offered to pick up the drugs from an industrial estate in Belgium. He was paid €4,500 (£3,918) to drive them to Hook van Holland in the Netherlands and board his lorry on a ferry, but was caught in the net by officers at the British border.
“Your role was not peripheral or limited. He was important in this large-scale commercial enterprise,” emphasized the judge addressing the defendant.
The sophisticated mode of concealment
Authorities were initially suspicious of the way he was driving his truck, which was carrying 28 pallets of underwear and clothing, and proceeded to x-ray the vehicle at the port.
According to District Attorney Jerry Hayes, the search revealed that the truck had been specially modified to hide 90 packages of cocaine on the inside walls of the trailer’s rear doors. The concealment mechanism was described in court as “sophisticated”.
At the same time, a mobile phone linked to the trafficking ring was also found in the vehicle, which was set to automatically delete all its data after 18 hours.
Defense barrister James Gray told the court his client accepted his actions and was on good behavior while on remand.
The judge ordered the seizure and destruction of Konkel’s drugs, truck and cellphone, while noting that the 40-year-old will be deported after serving his sentence.
