Ex-marines who smuggled drugs in Lego boxes jailed

The drugs arrvied at one of the gang's house while police were searching it

Two former Royal Marines who imported cocaine hidden in Lego Duplo boxes have been jailed.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Jack Jones and Isaac Rasmussen, both 28, had the drugs sent from Holland in DPD parcels.

Rasmussen's neighbour received one package and inadvertently gave what she thought were building bricks to her son's girlfriend, who needed a present for a friend's son, the court was told.

Jones and Rasmussen were jailed for 16-and-a-half and 10 years respectively.

Jones, of Hey Park, Huyton, and Rasmussen, of Heath Road, Widnes, and a third man, Paul Jones, 43 and of Lincombe Road, Huyton, admitted to conspiracy to import and supply cocaine.

Paul Jones, whose addresses were used to receive packages, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

'Risk of serious harm'

Charles Lander, prosecuting, said 40lbs (18kg) of cocaine with a street value of £1.8m was recovered by police.

The court heard one package was delivered to Paul Jones was found to contain eight Lego Duplo boxes, each with 2.2lbs (1kg) of high purity cocaine inside.

Another package was delivered to Rasmussen's address where a neighbour took it in.

Weeks later, after unsuccessful attempts to deliver the parcel to Rasmussen, she gave a box to her son's girlfriend, who needed a present for the birthday of her friend's son.

The box, which had an image of a fire engine on the front, was gift-wrapped and given to the child, whose mother opened it, Mr Lander said.

"When she opened the box, she immediately noticed that it was not Lego, but was an item that had been wrapped in various layers of different packaging," he said, adding that a block of cocaine was inside.

Jack Jones and Isaac Rasmussen were jailed for 16-and-a-half and 10 years respectively

The court heard Jack Jones and Rasmussen used encrypted messaging service Encrochat, which was infiltrated by police in 2020.

In one message, Jack Jones told a contact: "Bro we be multimillionaires in three months ha ha ha."

Jack Jones also admitted conspiracy to supply heroin, MDMA and cannabis, conspiracy to import cannabis and conspiracy to convert criminal property, while Rasmussen admitted conspiracy to import cannabis and Paul Jones admitted possessing cannabis and criminal property.

Sentencing the men, Judge Stuart Driver QC told Rasmussen he had allowed his home "to be used for delivery of multi kilo packages of Class A drugs".

"Part of such a delivery to your address, disguised as Lego, was inadvertently handed to a small child wrapped up as a birthday present, exposing the child to a risk of serious harm," he said.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Insp Lee Wilkinson said it was "a brilliant result to see three more dangerous drugs criminals locked up".

"Despite Jack Jones' boasts that they would soon be multimillionaires, their dreams of building a living - and a drugs empire - by bringing misery to our communities have now come crashing down around them," he added.

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