‘Chicken man’ Matthew Jones fronts court on cocaine and meth charges

An award-winning ex-KFC franchisee turned cocaine dealer who gave himself a Breaking Bad nickname was plucked selling coke to undercover cops via encrypted messaging apps.

An award-winning ex-KFC franchisee known as “Chicken Man” who resorted to drugs to deal with his troubled life was busted selling cocaine to undercover police on five occasions.

Matthew Jones, of Sale, imported coke and MDMA into Australia and sold it around Gippsland and Melbourne before police became aware of his drug dealing and hatched a plan to nab him in 2023.

He pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine, one of importing and another of possessing the drug and was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to two years and 11 months’ imprisonment.

Judge Amanda Chambers ordered that Jones be released on a recognizance release order after serving 15 months of his prison term.

It was previously alleged that Jones used the name “Chicken Man” in a possible reference to a character in the TV show Breaking Bad.

Jones is no longer a KFC franchisee.

The court heard that Jones, whose drug use escalated after his marriage ended, imported cocaine and MDMA to various addresses in Sale, Stratford and Glen Waverley and purchased them from users on encrypted apps Telegram and WhatsApp.

Mathew Jones, known as "Chicken Man", from Sale imported cocaine and MDMA and sold coke to undercover cops around Gippsland and Melbourne.

He sold 30.5 grams of coke to two undercover operatives on five occasions between August and November 2023.

Jones first met the undercover operatives in the Century Inn Traralgon carpark on August 25, 2023 where they told him they were trying to buy cocaine.

He replied “Well what do you think I was in the middle of doing. I deal coke, it’s okay girls, just relax, you don’t have to lie to me” and showed them bags with a white powdered substance.

In subsequent conversations, he told the undercover operatives that he supplied the substance to most of his clients through mail and asked them to contact him on the messaging app Signal.

During one of his drug deals, he told an operative he could show them how to

import coke if the buyer was okay with taking the risk. He then provided a rundown of his

method.

“The fact that the cocaine were trafficked to the covert operatives and did not enter the community affords little if any weight in your sentencing,” Judge Chambers said.

KFC franchisee in Sale Matthew Jones, known as “Chicken Man” has been jailed on serious drug importation and dealing charges.

She said Jones won KFC franchisee of the year award on multiple occasions but his cocaine addiction continued during the successful expansion of his business in Gippsland.

After his marriage ended in September 2022 — in large part due to his substance abuse — Jones’ life descended into “absolute chaos” and he then began using drugs daily.

He told a psychologist — who diagnosed him with polysubstance abuse disorder — that his offending was not motivated by financial gain but that he became obsessed at providing high quality drugs and became good at it, just as good as running the KFC franchise.