A dealer disguised drugs as colourful sweets and chocolates to appeal to children. Elliot Kennedy, 34, ran a large-scale drugs factory churning out hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of "edibles" from his base.
A large volume were made to appeal to kids with packaging making them look like popular snacks - while Mescaline was also disguised as tortilla chips. Magic mushrooms, cannabis, cocaine and MDMA were also among the £121,000 worth of drugs seized when cops raided the property in March 2022.
Officers found a packaging and postage labels, including reels of customs declaration stickers, suggesting the drugs were being shipped internationally. Kennedy was arrested following a foot chase as he tried to jump out of a bedroom window at the drugs base in in Erdington, Birmingham.
Officers had smashed their way through a reinforced metal security door as well as a wooden door blocked off from the inside and braced with wooden bars.
Kennedy, of Sutton Coldfield, went on to plead guilty to 23 counts of drugs possession at Birmingham Crown Court. He was jailed for seven and a half years on Friday (June 23).
Detective Constable Holly Percival, from West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “This was a significant drugs supply operation, which we've now crushed and removed a prominent drug dealer from our streets. The drugs trade often involves the exploitation of children and the fact Kennedy was manufacturing drugs to look like sweets and chocolate shows how sinister and dangerous this operation was.
“Drugs can not only cost lives, but is also linked to serious violence between drug gangs and other crimes, and there will be no let-up in our work to tackle those involved in the illegal supply of them."
