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British pensioners deny cocaine trafficking on CMV cruise
A retired British couple are on trial in Portugal accused of smuggling nearly £1 million worth of cocaine on to a luxury cruise.
The pair, from Bromley in Kent, were arrested when 9 kilos of the drug was allegedly found in four suitcases in their cabin on CMV’s MC Marco Polo when it docked in Lisbon last December.
Roger Clarke, a 72-year-old former chef, and his wife Sue, 71, deny the charges. If convicted, they face up to 12 years in prison.
A diary released ahead of the couple’s trial in Lisbon, which starts today, showed the pensioners travelled on luxury cruises totalling £18,000 to Brazil, Cuba and the Caribbean over two years before being arrested.
This was despite having a disposable monthly income, after they had paid the rent on a home near Alicante, of just £885 a month.
A Portuguese police report said the couple made trips to South America to destinations linked with smuggling cocaine into Europe.
Earlier trips were by plane but later trips were on cruise ships, allowing them to carry more drugs, said the report.
Court papers made public on Monday~showed that after his arrest Mr Clarke told police a mystery Jamaican businessman called Lee had paid for their £6,800 Caribbean cruise and tricked them into smuggling the drugs.
Mrs Clarke told police she only met Lee and his wife Claudette once and that she didn’t know her husband’s cases contained cocaine.
Court papers also showed the couple were imprisoned in Norway in 2010 after being caught trafficking 240 kilos of cannabis resin.
Portuguese police were tipped off by Britain’s National Crime Agency.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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