A 40-year-old truck driver was sentenced to 13½ years in prison for attempting to smuggle nearly $10 million worth of cocaine into England. The drugs were concealed in a shipment of clothing from Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS brand.
Jakub Jan Konkel, a Polish national, drove a customized vehicle containing the contraband from the Netherlands to Essex. The drugs, nearly 200 pounds in total, were packaged in 2.2-pound units and hidden in a compartment inside the vehicle’s back doors.
Konkel was apprehended by border officials at a port northeast of London after arriving on a ferry from the Hook of Holland. An x-ray of the cargo revealed the hidden cocaine. Authorities believe the drugs were loaded during a 16-minute stop recorded by Konkel’s tachograph, which he failed to disclose during interviews with law enforcement.
The U.K.’s National Crime Agency confirmed that the parties involved with the clothing shipment were not connected to the drug smuggling. The shipment was otherwise legitimate.
SKIMS, co-founded by Kardashian in 2019, is valued at around $5 billion. According to Forbes, Kardashian’s personal net worth is approximately $2 billion.