Kim Kardashian reps just put out a statement making it crystal clear that SKIMS had absolutely nothing to do with a major cocaine smuggling operation that went down in England.
The brand’s shapewear got caught up in the middle of a drug bust after a Polish truck driver used a legitimate shipment to hide nearly $9.4 million worth of cocaine, and now they’re setting the record straight.
Jakub Jan Konkel, a 40-year-old from northern Poland, was sentenced Monday at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to 13 years and six months in prison for trafficking cocaine.
He transported a truckload of 28 pallets of SKIMS clothing from the Netherlands to England in September, and Border Force officers caught him slipping at the Port of Harwich when they X-rayed his vehicle.
SKIMS released a statement saying, “SKIMS is aware of the recent news involving a shipment with our products. We want to be absolutely clear: SKIMS had no knowledge whatsoever about this criminal activity. We had no connection to the smuggling operation, the driver, or the truck.”
The company’s making sure everybody knows they’re completely innocent in this whole situation.
Officers discovered 90 packages of cocaine hidden in specially adapted compartments built into the rear trailer doors, totaling about 198 pounds of the drug.
The truck had been specially modified to conceal the packages, and investigators even found a mobile phone in the vehicle programmed to wipe itself after 18 hours.
The street value was estimated at roughly $9.4 million, and authorities stressed that the actual SKIMS merchandise was completely legitimate.
The clothing shipment was just being used as cover for the narcotics operation, according to TMZ.
Konkel initially tried to play dumb about the drugs, but he eventually admitted he agreed to smuggle the cocaine for about $5,000.