Britain's Breaking Bad: Law-abiding couple set up £4million drug factory after facing massive medical bills to treat their daughter's terminal cancer



Darren and Debra Wright, from Herne Bay in Kent, suffered double tragedy

Daughter Chloe went to Texas for cancer surgery but died aged four in 2004



Elder daughter Ella died in 2007 of staphylococcus infection in 2007

Wright became depressed and turned to cannabis in wake of loss

Soon he was growing it and it became a multi-million pound business

Wright has been jailed for five years eight months and his wife three years

Both admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis from April 2008 to this year

A couple who launched a multi-million pound cannabis empire following the deaths of their two young daughters have been jailed for a total of eight years.

Darren and Debra Wright, from Herne Bay in Kent, were devastated when Chloe, four, died in 2004 and then their elder daughter Ella, nine, passed away in 2007.



The couple spiralled into depression and, with echoes of Walter White, who produced methamphetamine to pay for medical bills after he was diagnosed with cancer in the TV series Breaking Bad, Wright, 47, turned to cannabis and then began producing it himself.

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Drugs: Debra Wright, 48, left, and her husband Darren, 48, have been jailed for conspiracy to produce cannabis

The Wrights began producing cannabis after two of their daughters died - and were soon making millions Family tragedy: The Wrights lost their daughter Chloe, pictured, to a rare form of cancer when she was four

Within a year Wright and his wife headed a multi-million pound empire using Vietnamese illegal immigrants as cheap labour.



Over five years they produced cannabis worth £4m at seven factories across Kent, but their luck ran out in April this year when police became suspicious and they fled to a Spanish villa bought with their drug money.



Two months later they were extradited back to the UK and yesterday they were jailed at Maidstone Crown Court.

Debra Wright, 48, was jailed for three years and her husband was sentenced to five years and eight months behind bars after admitting conspiracy to produce cannabis between April 2008 and April this year.



Judge Michael Carroll told Wright he had 'tailored' her sentence so she would be back with their remaining daughter, who is 17, 'before not too long.'

The court heard how the couple lost their daughter Chloe to an aggressive form of cancer in July 2004.



Police discovered a number of cannabis factories and linked them to the Wrights, who had fled to Spain



After her diagnosis with the rare form of cancer called rhabdomysarcoma, and being told by doctors at Great Ormond Street that there was no more they could do, the Wrights re-mortgaged their Kent home.

With help from supporters including actor Shaun Williamson, who played Barry in EastEnders,and former cricketer Phil Tufnell, who is married to one of Chloe's cousins, they raised more than £260,000 to send the child 8,000 miles to doctors in Texas for experimental therapy .



But the treatment failed and Chloe died.



Three years later, the couple were plunged further into grief when their daughter Ella, nine, died, after a routine operation to remove teeth led to her becoming infected with staphylococcus bacteria.

She died as she was being driven home from school after she became ill on her first day back from the operation.



Drugs factory: The Wrights have now been jailed, leaving a 17-year-old daughter to cope without them

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

John Kearney, mitigating for Wright, told Maidstone Crown Court the tragedy of his second daughter's death sent him 'off the rails'.

He said: 'Mr Wright became angry and bitter and went off the rails. A long investigation began into the death. She died from toxic shock due to infection.

'He started smoking cannabis to a great extent... He feels very culpable for what he has done to her.

'The only shining light is their daughter's education. She has been given a place at university in Belfast.'

'Mr Wright became angry and bitter and went off the rails [after his second daughter died]. He started smoking cannabis to a great extent.'

- John Kearney, mitigating for Darren Wright

Ben Lloyd, for Mrs Wright, a housewife, said she played a lesser role in the operation and 'buried her head in the sand'.

He said: 'She should have asked more questions. After the loss of their two children she was fit for nothing else than grieving.

'It is powerful mitigation.'

He added: 'She has to be separated from her only surviving daughter who will have to struggle on without her parents for support.'

Judge Carroll, sentencing, told Debra Wright that she had experienced a 'tragedy' but her criminal activity was 'widespread'.

He told her: '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...

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

He added: 'You have a future. You have a daughter. This is also something I can take into account - I will tailor the sentence accordingly so that before long you will able to rejoin her.'

The Wrights' story had echoes of the TV series Breaking Bad, in which Walter White, pictured, turns to drugs to make money after he is diagnosed with lung cancer

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.'

Detective Constable Donna Hopper said: 'It was a sophisticated set up managed by Vietnamese illegal immigrants who had to live in cramped and dangerous conditions.



'Evidence of the Wrights' involvement came as a result of extensive enquiries following the discovery of a number of individual factories.'

