Diss man jailed for drug smuggling

A Diss man has been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle cocaine through Dover.Keith Green was stopped by customs officials who discovered two packets hidden behind the glove box of his car, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

A Diss man has been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle cocaine through Dover.

Keith Green was stopped by customs officials who discovered two packets hidden behind the glove box of his car, Canterbury Crown Court heard. When the contents were analysed they were found to be two kilos of pure cocaine with a street value of £79,920.

Green, 35, of Bellacre Close, was jailed after he admitted smuggling at Dover on December 16 last year.

Claire Harden, prosecuting, told the court that, when stopped by customs, Green said he had been visiting his parents who moved to France 18 months ago but he couldn't be precise about the town where they lived.

Deanna Heer, mitigating, said Green had run up about £30,000 in debts on loans and credit cards after he was unable to work for 18 months following an operation for a back problem.

She said that he had been offered £4,500 to bring the drugs in and had he been successful would have handed them over at a supermarket car park.

She said that Green had been given his expenses, a pre-programmed satnav and a mobile phone and had driven to Rotterdam where he met a man who concealed the drugs in the car.

“He was very foolish to get involved and now very much regrets it,” said Miss Heer.

She said there was a job for Green with his former employer when released from custody and said the sentence would also affect Green's family and his elderly parents.

Jailing Green, judge Nigel van der Bijl told him: “You threw away so much. There has to be a prison sentence though. Cocaine is destroying our cities, towns and villages.”