Drug courier jailed for supplying heroin to grandmother who hid stash amongst Cornish pasties

Simon Kinney, 49, and Teresa Wood, 63, part of a £1m drug supply chain

A drug courier who supplied a grandmother with heroin which she hid among her supply of Cornish pasties has been jailed for three years.

Ex-taxi driver Simon Kinney, 49, admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs at Exeter Crown Court last month, as part of a £1m operation channelling heroin from Merseyside to the southwest. After buying a £50,000 consignment of heroin from Liverpool he passed it on to pensioners Michael and Teresa Wood, who transported it to Bodmin.

Ms Wood was jailed along with her husband, two sons, grandson and 11 others in April for their part in the plan. The heroin was found in her shopping bag, alongside some Cornish pasties which she had bought for her supper.

At the time, she claimed she was on her way back from a trip to Torquay and said that the drugs must have been "thrown" into her bag without her knowing. She was later found to be part of a supply network ferrying the drug to Devon and Cornwall.

Kinney, of no fixed address, was tracked down by Devon and Cornwall police after an appeal on the BBC Crimewatch programme last year. Following a two-year surveillance operation, he and the drugs gang were arrested and charged.

The supply chain started in Liverpool and then passed through Torbay before the drugs were distributed over a wide area which included Tiverton, east Devon and Cornwall, the court was told.