Danny Rhone
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Firefighter jailed over cocaine in shoebox
By Jack SommersJune 07, 2010
WHAT started as a trip to Las Vegas has ended in a six-year prison sentence for a firefighter based at Farnborough Airport.
Danny Rhone, 27, of Marlborough View, became involved in drug dealing with people he feared and owed money to from his holiday.
Guildford Crown Court heard Rhone got into debt while in the gambling capital of the world and was pressured into helping move cocaine from Farnborough to Bristol.
On October 8 last year, he placed 2kg of the drug in a shoebox which was then put into a van bound for Bristol.
Police found it after stopping the vehicle on the M3 in Surrey. The driver denied any knowledge of the drugs.
But the court heard he was carrying a note with Rhone’s mobile phone number and postcode on it, which led officers to search his home.
In his bedroom, they found the shoes that originally came in the shoebox, which Rhone had specifically bought to smuggle the drugs in.
The van driver was acquitted after a trial but Rhone admitted one charge of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs earlier this year.
He was jailed on Friday with the judge ordering him to serve half his sentence in prison and the rest on licence.
Surrey Police said its Cross Border Crime Team had received information about a white courier van and a black Audi acting suspiciously in Farnborough, before the van was intercepted on the motorway.
The search of Rhone's home also turned up "a wedge of bank notes in excess of £1,000".
Detective Inspector Martin Goodwin said: “This case shows once again the value of having a dedicated cross-border team in Surrey.
"I hope it sends a message to anyone thinking of travelling here to offend that we are watching our borders and we will take action against you."
For more on this story, see this week's Farnborough News & Mail, out on Friday, June 11.
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