A ‘MAIN player’ in the Rugby drug trade who returned to dealing after being released on licence from a nine-year prison sentence is back behind bars.
Kenroy Johns, 50, of St Andrews Crescent, Rugby, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of possessing heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to supply them.
And following an adjournment Johns, a one-time police informer in Jamaica who had been granted asylum in this country, was jailed for six years and eight months.
During the hearing at Coventry Crown Court, Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones also ordered that £2,770 in cash found at Johns’ home should be confiscated under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said that on August 3 the police raided Johns’ home as part of Project Palladium, a co-ordinated operation to clamp down on drug-dealing in the town.
Hidden under a hedge in the garden officers found a tin containing heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, with more of the drugs stuffed inside a football.
Altogether there were drugs with a combined street value of more than £3,000.
In the house they found scales, self-seal bags, £2,770 in cash, and a ledger showing he was owed tens of thousands of pounds for drug supplies he had made, as well as phones with messages relating to drug-dealing.
Mr Cartin pointed out that at the time Johns was on licence from a nine-year sentence imposed at Nottingham Crown Court in 2010 after he had been convicted of conspiring to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
Delroy Henry, defending, said Johns, who was ‘old enough to know better,’ and his family had originally come to this country from Jamaica seeking asylum because he was treated as a police informer in Jamaica.
Following his conviction in 2010 the authorities had considered deporting him, but could not do so because of the risk to him in Jamaica, so he had been made subject to home detention and prohibited from working.
It was against that background that he returned to his illegal activity, added Mr Henry.
Jailing Johns, Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him: “Sitting in these courts, it is obvious to me that crack cocaine and heroin are a scourge.
“Addicts break into people’s homes to get money to get more, they prostitute themselves, and they rob people, and they are otherwise degraded.
“You are someone who has been guilty of conspiracy in the past in relation to class A drugs, and received a sentence of nine years.
“You were released in 2014, and by this year you were engaged in a business in which you were a leading role.
“Your offending in the period of your licence, and with that significant previous convictions, compels me to consider that this comes towards the top of the sentencing bracket. You have only yourself to blame.”
After the hearing, Det Con Richard Zarcone said: “Johns was one of the main players in the Rugby drug trade and we welcome the fact that he is now behind bars and a significant quantity of drugs have been taken off the streets. He acted as a middle man, providing drugs to street dealers who in turn sold them to users.
“I hope this sentencing sends a strong message to anyone who is dealing drugs in Rugby.
“I would encourage anyone who has information about drug dealing in their area to report it to us. The information you provide could be the last piece of the jigsaw that leads us to catching an offender.”
Another six people arrested as part of Project Palladium have been released under investigation while enquiries continue.
Anyone who suspects drug activity should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
