A Border Force UK agent had his suspicions confirmed when faced with a strange package from Amsterdam sent by a person using the fake name 'Frank de Boer'.
Pictures from Border Force and Merseyside Police show what the agent, Andrew Coley, found when he examined the box, sent by post from the Dutch capital to a DPD depot in Birmingham on February 23. Inside the box, addressed to former soldier Christopher Traynor in Rock Ferry, was a green pouffe.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Mr Coley had the pouffe x-rayed, which instantly showed the presence of three rectangular packages concealed inside it. The pouffe was cut open and found to be filled with expanding foam, which concealed three blocks wrapped in brown tape and plastic bags.
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The discovery of the blocks, each containing around half a kilo of heroin, would set off an investigation which led to Traynor, 30, being jailed for nine and a half years on Monday.
Traynor, of Lightbound Road, Tranmere, had a record of "exemplary military service" in the Royal Mercian Regiment but had developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a cocaine addiction in the years since seeing his "friends maimed" in Afghanistan.
Natalia Cornwall, prosecuting, told the court: "This parcel had been imported into the UK by post and stated that it was sent from ‘Frank De Boer’ from an address in Amstelveen in Amsterdam. The sender name is assumed to be false, as of course Frank De Boer is a well known retired Dutch international footballer and former football manager."
Ms Cornwall said examination of the heroin blocks revealed a purity of between 53-55%, and a potential street value of up to £148,440. The heroin seizure led to a Merseyside Police operation involving raids on Traynor's rented flat on Beech Road, Rock Ferry. The raids compounded Traynor's problems, with police finding a stash of Class A and B drugs, alongside designer gear and cash.
Julian Nutter, defending, said the former infantryman ran up an unpayable debt to his dealers and was roped into working for a gang selling heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and 2C-B.
At the flat, where Traynor was arrested, officers seized:
- 760 pink tablets found to be the hallucinogenic Class A drug 2C-B, worth up to £5,000.
- 486g of ketamine worth up to £20,470
- 525 tablets of ecstacy worth up to £6,230
- 73g of powdered MDMA worth up to £3,675
- 1kg of cocaine worth up to £7,460
Traynor provided no comment answers in his police interviews and refused to hand over the pin code to a phone seized from the address. However, he later pleaded guilty to importing heroin; possessing cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and 2C-B with intent to supply and possessing criminal property.
The court head he provided a basis of plea, accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, admitting that he had been paid for allowing his home to be used to store, bag up and prepare drugs but was not involved in arranging the importation of the heroin.
Mr Nutter referred to a psychiatric report prepared for the sentencing hearing on his client's struggles since leaving the army. He said: "He has a record of exemplary military service. He was under fire on numerous occasions. His experience was such, as confirmed in the [psychiatric report], that it resulted in his being diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"His role within the army was an infantryman, the poor bloody infantry. He was regularly shot at and saw his friends maimed before his own eyes. He came out from that a lesser man than he was when he entered the service of her late Majesty."
Mr Nutter suggested his "vulnerable" client was "used as a pawn" by high-level drugs bosses - "perhaps as he was in the army". Mr Nutter said his addiction to Class A drugs had led to Traynor falling into heavy debts to an organised crime group, which the leaders used as a way of roping him into their conspiracy.
Judge David Potter, sentencing, told Traynor he had played a significant role in flooding Merseyside with heroin. He said: "As you yourself are only too aware, the trafficking of Class A drugs brings misery to the streets of Merseyside, it brings misery to the people who are addicted to Class A drugs, and it brings misery to the families who do their best to support those addicts.
"Violence is endemic in the drug trade, and there are long-term consequences for addicts and their families."
However Judge Potter said: "The court is keenly aware there is another side to your character. You are described as a devoted family man, you served this country with distinction. You were in the army for a number of years, during which time you were deployed with the Royal Mercian Regiment to Afghanistan.
"There you witnessed events that have had long-lasting effects on your mental health, which are likely to be long-term. You are determined now to provide a better role model to your child than the one presently before this court."
Traynor will serve half of his nine and a half year sentence in prison, before being released automatically on licence.
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