‘Breaking Bad’-style husband and wife face jail after smuggling £1m worth of crystal meth into the UK inside 400 Mexican wrestler dolls
- Paola and David Morrish face jail after package of 400 dolls seized at Stansted
- Border Force found drugs in Essex last year and tracked them to their address
- When dolls were sliced open, they were found to contain 7kg of Class A drugs
- Police tracked them to address in Wiltshire, which was listed on delivery label
- Paola pleaded guilty last year and David, 48, admitted assisting an offender
A ‘Breaking Bad’-style husband-and-wife smuggled £1million worth of crystal meth into the UK in bags of coffee and plastic children’s Mexican wrestler dolls.
Paola and David Morrish now face jail after a package of 400 dolls was seized by Border Force at Stansted Airport in Essex last January and tracked to their address.
When the figures were sliced open, they were found to contain over 7kg of the Class A drug methamphetamine – made famous in TV blockbuster series Breaking Bad.
A ‘Breaking Bad’-style husband-and-wife (pictured, Paola) smuggled £1million worth of crystal meth into the UK – in bags of coffee and plastic children’s Mexican wrestler dolls
Paola and David Morrish (pictured) now face jail after a package of 400 dolls was seized by Border Force at Stansted Airport in Essex last January and tracked to their address
Police removed the drugs from the plastic children’s toys, and tracked it back to an address in Chippenham, Wiltshire, which was listed on the delivery label, Swindon Crown Court heard yesterday.
Detectives watched as Paola, 42, stopped at the house and retrieved the dolls.
She then returned to the Malmesbury home she shared with her husband David and son.
Officers found Morrish had accepted other drug shipments from Mexican gangsters, including crystal meth disguised to look like coffee and sent in packets of coffee beans.
When the figures were sliced open, they were found to contain over 7kg of the Class A drug methamphetamine – made famous in TV blockbuster series Breaking Bad. Pictured: Paola
Paola from Malmesbury, pleaded guilty last year to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug, between October 2018 and February 2019. And her husband David Morrish, 48, of the same address, this morning admitted a charge of assisting an offender
Paola from Malmesbury, pleaded guilty last year to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug, between October 2018 and February 2019.
And her husband David Morrish, 48, of the same address, this morning admitted a charge of assisting an offender.
He had disposed of a package that had been received by Paola in February.
Peter Binder, defending David Morrish asked the judge to order a written pre-sentence report for his client, who is of previous good character.
David had disposed of a package that had been received by Paola (pictured) in February
Judge Jason Taylor QC adjourned sentencing the pair until March 20.
Paola was remanded in custody while David was granted bail.
He said: ‘I apologise that I’m unable to proceed to sentence today. I hope you understand the reasons why.
‘It is far better for you that there is a clear understand of what this case is all about,’ he added.
A London-based gang member who was believed to be the intended recipient of the drugs, Paolo Matos, 35, fled his Battersea flat back to Mexico last year.
He is wanted by the UK and Italian authorities.