A 71-year-old man from Montreal has been sentenced to six years in prison in the United Kingdom for attempting to smuggle more than $1 million of cocaine.
The U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the country’s lead agency against organized crime, said in a news release Monday Ronald Lord was given his sentence on Sept. 5 for the incident in February.
On Feb. 7, Lord was stopped at Gatwick Airport and was questioned by border officials. He said he was coming to the U.K. to sightsee after a seven-day holiday in Barbados.
When officials x-rayed his mobility scooter, they found eight kilos of cocaine hidden in a void in the back seat panel. The drugs had a street value of roughly £640,000 — more than CAD$1 million — the NCA said.
The agency said Lord told its officers he had no knowledge of the contraband or how it got in his scooter. However, the NCA said officers found a screw from the panel in his pocket, and later learned he only spent three days in Barbados.
During a Aug. 5 court hearing, Lord admitted to class A drug smuggling charges against him.
“Organized crime groups need smugglers like Lord to bring class A drugs into the U.K., where they are sold for huge profit by gangs who deal in violence and exploitation,” said Richard Wickham, senior investigating officer with the NCA, in the news release.
“He obviously thought that because he was a pensioner he would be less of a target for law enforcement. He was wrong, and I hope this case sends out a message to anyone who would consider doing the same.”