Yahoo Finance Two men jailed over huge £20m drugs haul discovered in frozen chicken
Two men have been jailed for over 30 years between them over what police describe as one of Britain’s biggest ever drugs busts, which saw £20m worth of cocaine seized.
Police seized 168kg of the Class A drug hidden amongst pallets of frozen chicken when they pulled over a van on the A45 in December.
The driver, 54-year-old Baldev Singh Sahota, was arrested, and a second man, 34-year-old Shakti Gupta, was apprehended later at an address in Birmingham, where a further 4kg of cocaine and MDMA was discovered.
Both men were charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and they pleaded guilty to the offence in January at Birmingham Crown Court.
Sahota was jailed for 16 years and Gupta for 18 years at the same court on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
MORE: Emily Maitlis replaced on Newsnight following criticism of Dominic Cummings
"This operation has resulted in one of the largest land seizures of cocaine within the UK, ever," said Detective Superintendent Neil Ballard, from the Met's Specialist Crime Command.
MORE: Boris Johnson says people could be fined if they break new self-isolation rules
"It is an extremely significant amount of Class A drugs that indicates the scale of this organised drug supply, which the Met has successfully dismantled.”
He added: “This sentencing result is due to the hard work and commitment from those involved in dismantling drugs networks that are intrinsically linked to the violence that we have seen playing out on our streets throughout the country.
“This result should serve as a stark warning to anyone involved in the supply of drugs in London and the rest of the UK that we will do everything we legitimately can to bring you to justice.”
