POLICE FOIL SMUGGLING OF POT-STUFFED CHICKEN LEGS

LONDON - British police said Friday they had foiled an attempt to smuggle
fried chicken legs stuffed with cannabis to a gunman involved in one of
Britain's longest armed sieges on record.

Detectives agreed to let the gunman order the food in a bid to persuade him
to end the stand-off at a house in east London where he has been holding a
man hostage for more than a week.

But when officers examined the food delivered by a friend of the gunman on
Sunday, they found the cooked chicken was full of cannabis, a police
spokeswoman told Reuters.

The next day when the same friend came back with another chicken meal,
police arrested him and discovered more cannabis inside the food.

"He had no idea that the previous box had been rumbled and we were
delighted to see him again," a police source told the London Evening Standard.

The ongoing stand-off, which started at the house in Hackney on December 26
after the man shot at officers trying to remove a car outside, has become
one of Britain's longest armed sieges with about 50 officers involved.