Smuggler who hid cocaine in wheelchair jailed

Friday, 22 June 2012

By Daniel O’Brien

A MAN who tried to smuggle £370,000 of cocaine into the UK inside his wheelchair has been jailed.

Daniel Roque Hall, of Willesden Lane, Cricklewood was handed a three-and-a-half-year sentence on Thursday after he admitting attempting to import the drug into the country on November 28 2011.

Isleworth Crown Court heard the 29-year-old had been travelling from Peru to London via Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when he was stopped by border force officers at Heathrow.

Swabs from his wheelchair showed a presence of cocaine and an x-ray revealed a number of packages hidden in its leather seat.

The packages contained nearly three kilograms of the class A drug which, if cut and sold on the street would have fetched around £370,000.

Pete Avery of the UK Border Force said:

“Mr Roque Hall may have thought that because he was in a wheelchair he would be above suspicion, but our officers are trained to expect the unexpected.

“The cocaine hidden in his wheelchair was of a very high purity and there is no doubt in my mind that had he not been stopped it would’ve ended up being cut and sold on the streets of London.”

Email: daniel.obrien@nlhnews.co.uk

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