Published at 10:19, Saturday, 25 October 2008

John Roe was a prolific poker player whose ambition was to become a professional gambler.

John Anthony Roe, of Seaton: Sentenced to 12 years for conspiracy to supply cocaine, six years for conspiracy to supply amphetamines and five years each for three counts of conspiracy to supply cannabis, all of which will be served concurrently. He had admitted three charges of conspiring to supply cannabis and one each of conspiring to supply cocaine and amphetamines.

But at Carlisle Crown Court, as the 40-year-old west Cumbrian sat in the dock, it was clear that his latest criminal gamble to make his fortune in the drugs underworld had ended disastrously.

It was the second time Roe had dabbled in the murky world of drug dealing – and the second time he paid for with a hefty jail sentence.

A former DJ, with a reputation as a slick talker, he first became infamous in Cumbria nearly a decade ago when he fled abroad after leading a doomed cocaine racket, which triggered a police investigation stretching from Workington to South America.

Regarded then as the county’s most wanted man, he was hunted by Interpol and Customs and Excise officers after they smashed a £600,000 plot to smuggle the drug into Britain from Ecuador.

Roe was finally tracked down to Spain, where he had fled after realising the plot had been uncovered.

He was arrested on an international warrant in Madrid in October 2000 – more than two years after he left a family christening party in a Workington pub and disappeared.

Roe fought extradition proceedings but in 2002 he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail for his part as one of a five-strong gang which tried to smuggle cocaine into Newcastle and Gatwick airports.

A former pupil of St Joseph’s comprehensive school in Workington, Roe had previously lived at Church Road, working at an electrical shop in the town before spending a long period unemployed.

He travelled the world for a year and had connections in the club scene, doing some DJ work abroad.

Police described him at the time as “a small-time heavy, always getting involved in fights, who has the gift of the gab”.

But his low-key reputation was in sharp contrast to his role as one of the key-players in the South America scheme.

One of the plotters in this earlier crime was Richard “Dickie” Daniels, co-accused in the latest plot, who was later sentenced to 12 years for his role in the plot. The two had known each other from the Ibiza club scene.

Their plan was foiled when one of their couriers was arrested at Quito airport in Equador and three kilos of cocaine were found expertly concealed in the sides of his suitcases.

Eight years on from his last sentencing, Roe – described by his barrister as a prolific poker player – yesterday made a desperate attempt to convince the judge in the case that he was a reformed man. His outlook transformed by the birth of his first child.

“That separation will be extremely hard for him to bear,” said the barrister.

In a detailed letter to Judge Peter Hughes, QC, Roe went on to say: “I regret turning to drugs to pay for my debts. I have seen in prison what misery they cause to drug addicts and their families and realise how the whole infrastructure of society is affected with people robbing to fund their habits.”

As he left the dock to begin his 12 year sentence, Roe looked like a defeated man: a man who had gambled and lost.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk