Fugitive Captured In Montana

A fugitive Spokane espresso stand owner will be returned from Montana where he was caught using a phony Massachusetts driver’s license, authorities say.

Darryl Hronek failed to surrender as he promised last summer to begin serving a 120-month sentence at a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Johnson said Hronek was stopped on July 4 by a Montana state trooper for a traffic violation near Livingston.

When he was stopped, the driver produced a Massachusetts driver’s license bearing the name Kevin W. Bell.

Hronek was convicted in March 1994 of setting up a marijuana-growing operation by providing rental homes to people who agreed to grow pot plants.

Hrnoek, who operated Capone’s Espresso on North Division, was given a mandatory five-year sentence, but that term was doubled because he had a previous drug conviction. He now also is being charged with failure to surrender to serve a prison term.

Deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service, who had been looking for the federal fugitive, knew he had been using that alias and entered it in the national crime computer.

Hronek admitted his true identity when confronted by the trooper. A search of the recently purchased 1984 Buick that Hronek was driving turned up $1,840 in cash and communication pagers, Johnson said.

, DataTimes