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Couple whose young daughters both died started £4m cannabis empire after 'going off the rails' and spiralling into depression

Darren and Debra Wright were left distraught when Chloe, four died from cancer in 2004 and then elder daughter Ella, nine passed away three years later

Debra and Darren Wright with their daughter Chloe, then three-years-old, who died in 2004. (SWNS)

A couple who created a £4m cannabis empire following the deaths of their two young daughters have been jailed for a combined eight years.

Darren and Debra Wright were left distraught when Chloe, four died from cancer in 2004 and then elder daughter Ella, nine passed away three years later.

Having spiralled into depression and paid tens of thousands for Chloe's cancer treatment, the pair turned to drugs in a bid to cope.

In a bizarre echo of hit TV show Breaking Bad - where a terminally-ill teacher produces methamphetamine when he gets cancer - the couple produced £4m of cannabis at seven factories across Kent.

They started producing cannabis and within a year headed a multi-million pound empire, using Vietnamese illegal immigrants as cheap labour.

Their luck ran out in April this year when police got suspicious and they fled to a Spanish villa bought with their drug money.

Two months later Mr Wright, 47, and Mrs Wright, 48, were extradited back to the UK, where they were jailed this week.

The judge who jailed Mrs Wright for three years and Mr Wright for five told them they had suffered tragedies, but had also 'lived off the proceeds of crime'.

Judge Michael Carroll acknowledged Mr Wright had 'gone off the rails', and tailored Mrs Wright's jail term so she could be with their 17-year-old daughter Kerry 'before not too long'.

The court heard how the couple, from Herne Bay, Kent first lost their four-year-old daughter Chloe to an aggressive form of cancer in July 2004.

They re-mortgaged their home and generous supporters helped raised more than £260,000 to send the youngster 8,000 miles to doctors in Texas.

But the experimental therapy failed to save Chloe from the rare form of cancer called rhabdomysarcoma.

Three years later the couple were plunged even deeper into grief when their other daughter Ella, nine, died.

They claimed she was infected with staphylococcus bacteria after a trip to the hospital.


A year later Mr Wright's addiction had engulfed him and he enlisted his wife to launch a series of cannabis factories.


Judge Carroll, sentencing, told Mrs Wright: 'Your criminal activities were widespread. You were a willing lieutenant to your husband’s activities.

'Clearly, you acted enthusiastically when called upon to do so, living off the proceeds of crime.

'Yours was a significant role. You will have to live with what you have done.

'I take into account the tragedies you have suffered. I do accept it might well have clouded your judgement.'


When sentencing Darren Wright to five years and eight months behind bars, Judge Carroll said: 'After the tragedy of your daughters’ death you went off the rails and became a cannabis user but I cannot accept it is the main reason for your involvement.

'It may have affected your judgement and made you more vulnerable but you were an extremely active and involved conspirator.'

Police linked the factories to a man who was imprisoned for 10 years in 2011.

The Wrights admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis between April 2008 and April this year.

Eleven others have been convicted in relation to the makeshift factories.