Pensioner couple accused of smuggling drugs insist they paid for cruises through 'hard work'

An elderly couple accused of trying to smuggle £1 million of cocaine into Europe on a luxury Caribbean cruise broke down in tears today as they insisted they had been betrayed by “friends” at the start of their trial.

Retired chef Roger Clarke, 72, and his ex-secretary wife Sue, 71, were marched into a courtroom in Lisbon in handcuffs by police to speak for the first time in public about the events leading up to their December 4 2018 arrests on board the MC Marco Polo.

Roger, who looked frailer and much thinner after more than nine months in a remand prison in the Portuguese capital, insisted he had no idea nine kilos of cocaine were hidden in the linings of four suitcases he agreed to pick up on the paradise island of St Lucia.

He told the three judges set to decide the fate of the elderly couple, who are on trial for a crime of drugs trafficking punishable under Portuguese law by four to 12 years in prison: “Some people we knew were aware we were occasionally going on Caribbean cruises and asked me to negotiate to buy exotic fruit for shipment back to the UK.

“I met on certain islands with certain people to do that job.

“Then then asked me if I would bring some suitcases back because they could fetch a high price in places like Harrods, up to £1,500 per case.

“They said they were going to use the cases as samples.

“It was something I did for them with no problems on earlier cruises and so I said ‘yes' this time round.”

Describing his shock when Portuguese police knocked on their cabin just before 5am after it docked in Lisbon on a last stop before the final UK destination of Tilbury and cut open their cases to find cocaine inside, he added: “I am so sorry we are here but we never ever knew drugs were in them.”

Explosive court papers released ahead of today’s trial revealed Bromley, Kent-born Mr Clarke claimed after his arrest a mysterious UK-based Jamaican businessman called Lee asked him to negotiate the exotic fruit sales during cruise ship stopovers in the Caribbean and bring back the suitcases “as a sideline.”

State prosecutor Manuela Brito told the court about the couple’s 2010 conviction and subsequent imprisonment for cannabis resin smuggling in Norway and asked why “a man of your age and life experience” had agreed to bring back suitcases given to him by strangers for someone he only knew by his first name.

“I have known Lee and Dee for years,” Mr Clarke insisted. In court Mr Clarke said that Dee, also known as George Wilmot, was his “original friend” who worked with Lee.

“My wife met them, Lee came out to our home in Spain with his wife on holiday.

“We went to two weddings in Jamaica of the people importing the fruit.

“We thought they were genuine friends and we were just happy to do them a favour.”

The couple, who have only been allowed occasional visits since last December and spent the first three months after their arrests apart, held hands after their handcuffs were removed before Mr Clarke gave his evidence.

Mrs Clarke, wearing a pink top and black trousers, obliged as her husband put his brown cardigan around her shoulders and whispered: “Keep it round you, keep warm.”

She later declined to add to her husband’s testimony with her own version of events.

Mr Clarke said his wife only knew Lee and Dee and their partners socially and never accompanied him during his cruise stopovers to negotiate fruit sales.

But he admitted she knew about his business interests and they both confessed in court they took the last two suitcases found to contain drugs aboard their cruise liner together from a bar in a duty-free area by the ship.

The former chef said he gave away the old cases they started their cruise with, one to a cabin steward and two to the man in St Lucia who handed him the new cases to take to Europe.

Tears welling in his eyes in a last address to the court, after he insisted the couple paid for their luxury cruises despite a joint monthly pension of around  £1150 through “savings from hard work”, he added: “We have lost everything now since we have been in custody.

“They have stopped our pensions, my family has sold our car to raise money for our lawyers, we have lost all our possessions. We have nothing.”

Policia Judiciaria inspector Carla Nunes, who accused the Clarkes in a damning pre-trial report of being drug mules who used their world cruises as a cover, contradicted Roger’s court claim he had given police numbers and emails for Lee and his associates.

She admitted forensic examination at a specialist Portuguese lab of the couple’s phones and an iPad had not been finalised before the closure of the investigation - and it was not made clear in court if authorities in the UK have located and spoken to the men Mr Clarke identified as Lee and George Wilmot - aka Dee.

State prosecutor Manuela Brito said in a closing speech the Clarkes’ age made them “perfect” drugs smugglers, telling the court the average person could tell Roger’s fruit import story “made no sense” and insisting: “There is no doubt that as carriers or owners of the drugs, they did what they are accused of and they knew what they were carrying.”

Verdict and sentencing was scheduled for September 26 at 2pm. The Clarkes were told they would remain in custody.