Photo: Liverpool Echo
Two former Royal Marines in the UK were busted after it was discovered they were importing cocaine into the country via Lego boxes. After a box was accidentally given to a child for a birthday present, an investigation was launched leading back to the two men.
Jack Jones and Issac Rasmussen, both aged 28, were sent to prison for 16-and-a-half years and 10 years, respectively after their operation was uncovered.
Jones had regular shipments from Holland, which reportedly contained the cocaine. It was also discovered that he had made multiple large transfers of money via bitcoins to a contact in Holland. Jones reportedly worked with Rasmussen to distribute the drugs.
Law enforcement raided Jones home when a large box showed up for him and it was found to contain Lego Duplo boxes with compressed blocks of cocaine inside of them.
Then Rasmussen's home was raided where remnants of a drug operation was uncovered. Upon further investigation, they learned Rasmussen's next door neighbor regularly accepted packages on his behalf since he was not home often. The neighbor says she "collected a number of packages over the years" which happened to include some of the cocaine concealed in Lego boxes.
The neighbor's son's girlfriend told her she was going to a children's party and didn't have a present to bring, so she told her to take one of the boxes of Legos.
The girlfriend took and wrapped the box and dropped it off for him, but when the boy opened it, his mom noticed there wasn't Legos inside but a package wrapped in multiple layers of material.
"The packaging was lined with foil and inside was a white bag that had brown masking tape with a marking on and contained a solid white block. Forensic analysis of that white block revealed it to be 1kg of cocaine at 82% purity."
The neighbor's house was searched by police where the found five other Lego boxes.
Source: LiverpoolEcho.co.uk