HGV driver hid drugs in Kim Kardashian Skims load

A lorry driver who smuggled £7.2m of cocaine in a shipment of Kim Kardashian Skims clothing has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years.

Border officers found 90kg of the drug when they stopped Jakub Konkel's truck at Harwich International Port, Essex, on 4 September.

The 40-year-old had hidden the cocaine within a legitimate delivery of Skims products from the Netherlands and brought it to the UK for onward dealing.

Konkel, of Kartuzy in northern Poland, admitted smuggling the Class A drugs and wept in the dock as he was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Judge Richard Wilkin said Konkel offered himself as a "willing driver" to collect the drugs from an industrial estate in Belgium.

He was paid 4,500 euros (£3,918) to drive them to the Hook of Holland and board a ferry with his truck, but was caught by officers at the UK border.

"Your role was not peripheral or limited. It was a significant role in this large-scale, commercial operation," Wilkin told the defendant.

Officers had become suspicious of how he was driving his lorry, which was carrying 28 pallets of underwear and clothing, and they x-rayed it at the port.

They found the truck had been specially adapted to hide 90 wraps of cocaine in the skin of the rear trailer doors, prosecutor Jerry Hayes said.

A mobile phone linked to the drugs supply was also found in the vehicle and had been set to automatically wipe itself after 18 hours.

James Gray, mitigating, told the court his client accepted what he did and had behaved well while on remand in prison.

After sentencing, Paul Orchard, of the National Crime Agency, said: "Organised crime groups use corrupt drivers like Konkel to move Class A drugs often hidden on entirely legitimate loads such as this.

"The detection and investigation have removed a significant amount of cocaine whose profits are lost to the crime group behind the smuggling attempt, and with Konkel they've lost an important enabler."

The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs, Konkel's truck and mobile phone, and said he would be deported after serving his sentence.

Kim Kardashian was contacted for comment.

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