According to a press release by London’s
Metropolitan Police, two UK men were found smuggling over $300,000 worth of
cocaine inside coconut milk and baked beans cans from the Caribbean to London.

 The two men, Daniel Kelly and Steven
Gilhooly had packaged the drugs as canned goods from St. Lucia to
southeast London in December 2018.

After a joint investigation
by London police and the UK’s National Crime Agency, the smuggling duo was found to have approximately $341,875 worth of cocaine.

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 Back in December 18, the duo flew from London
to St Lucia, telling customs officials that they had brought a can sealer in
their bags.

Kelly and Gilhooly had travelled
over to the island nation to smuggle drugs back to their home country and had bought
ample supply of tin lids to reseal the cans containing cocaine.

Both Kelly and Gilhooly were sentenced to prison for the same crime, for six and a half years and eight and a half years respectively.  

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 The duo was
sentenced at Snaresbook Crown Court, England on Wednesday.  

 According to the New
York Post, Detective Inspector Matthew Webb of the Metropolitan Police
Specialist Crime teams stated that the incident should be a loud message to
those who aim to conduct similar crimes, adding that the authorities will not
leave any “stone unturned in bringing them to justice”.

Webb further stated the violent repercussions of
widespread drug supply. He added that he hopes the incident makes wrongdoers
reflect on their misconduct and “demonstrates that crime doesn’t pay”.

 Mark McCormack, the National Crime
Agency Branch Commander stated in the press release that while the charged
duo assumed that they could use the fast parcel system to their advantage, law
enforcers were already aware of the loophole.

He added that working
alongside Border Force, the officials were successful in stopping the plot in its tracks and
preventing the selling of drugs for criminal profit.