Jailed British grandad tells cops he was ‘forced’ to smuggle £1m cocaine on cruise
THE British grandad who has been jailed for smuggling £1million worth of cocaine on a cruise in his suitcase told cops he was “forced” to take the drugs, it has been reported.
Roger Clarke and his wife Sue are currently serving eight years in prison in Lisbon after they were found with the drugs in their suitcase lining last December.
Now the 72-year-old claims crooks forced him to smuggle the drugs, The Sunday People reports.
The Brit has reportedly given police details of pictures of associates who he claims have made him move cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean.
Clarke, originally from Bromley, South London, said he turned to smuggling drugs to try and save his struggling restaurant business in Spain.
He claims a customer once paid him €2,000 to smuggle 10kg of cannabis in a car.
In a letter written in prison, Clarke said: “He asked me to do more but I refused.
“Next thing he returned with a couple of guys, beat me up and said if I didn’t continue they would set about Susan plus they knew we had family in Spain and would get at them.”
Police arrested Clarke and his on the Marco Polo after it docked in Lisbon.
The Clarke’s had been in the middle of a dream £6,800 Caribbean cruise when Portuguese officials were tipped of by UK cops.
OAP SMUGGLERS
Retired chef Clarke told a trial in Lisbon he had no idea drugs were in the cases and he was taking them back to the UK for a friend called ‘Lee’.
Clarke told the court ‘Lee’ was a UK-based Jamaican businessman who worked with an associate called ‘Dee,’ who he named in court as George Wilmot.
Clarke claimed he had been helping Lee and Dee negotiate the import of ‘exotic fruit’ and had agreed to carry the suitcases as a sideline.
He said he had been promised £800 and bragged he could sell the suitcases for a massive profit at Harrods.
They were questioned on how they could afford the £18,000 of cruises on a joint monthly pension of £1,150 with a rent of £445.
The couple said they had saved for them – but in reality the couple were making up to £26,000-a-cruise from smuggling.
Clarke told the court he gave away the three suitcases he embarked on the cruise from Tilbury, Essex.
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Ex-secretary Sue, originally of Wellingborough, Northants., said she only knew her husband’s business associates socially and never accompanied him when he negotiated ‘fruit sales’.
Clarke, originally of Kent, and mum-of-three Sue both served prison sentences in Norway after being convicted in 2010 for trafficking 240 kilos of cannabis resin.
They are appealing their sentences as they want to go to a UK prison to be closer to their family.