LONDON: Two pensioners who tried to smuggle £267,000 of drugs hidden inside frozen chicken were given away by the smell of rotting meat.
Former police officer Michael Kinkaid, 72 and Anthony Wright, 76, were jailed for seven years each after being found with 267 kilos of cannabis at an industrial unit at Laindon, Essex.
The operation to move the drugs mirrored the infamous Los Polos set-up in hit US television show Breaking Bad in which drugs were imported inside buckets of fried chicken.
But when bungling Kinkaid and Wright unpacked the sealed wraps of cannabis resin smuggled from Spain they failed to clean them, leaving traces of chicken on the packs.
The smell became so appalling that neighbouring businesses contacted police with concerns that there might have been a rotting body at the industrial unit.
When local officers broke into investigate they followed the smell to 89 blocks of cannabis resin hidden under polythene sheeting on November 27, 2013.
Detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious and Organised Crime Unit launched an investigation and arrested Kinkaid and Wright who rented the unit to store chicken imported from Spain.
Kinkaid of Wickford, Essex, and retired meat dealer Wright of Laindon, denied any involvement in the importation of drugs.
But the pair were found guilty of possessing cannabis with intent to supply after a six-day trial in October.
The men were sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on Friday.
The court heard how the pair refused to name other members of the operational set-up because of “misguided loyalty”.
Sarah Vine, prosecuting, said: “There are a number of factors which certainly point to these defendants having a significant role, operational or management, within a chain.”
Recorder Jeffrey Yearwood said: “The offences for which each of you have been convicted are particularly serious.
“Serious, not only because of the nature of the drug involved the quantity involved but for the impact that it had on the public who used those drugs and the possible damage to their health.”
Afterwards Detective Constable Bob Evans, of Essex Police, said: “These men were caught because they failed to clean the sealed packs of cannabis resin after they were separated from the frozen chickens.
“The packs of cannabis resin were then hidden under polythene sheeting.
“As the smell became worse other business in the area became concerned and reported an odour of what was described as rotting flesh coming from the unit.
