Senior Montreal imprisoned in the United Kingdom for trying to pass cocaine inside a mobility scooter

British borders say that a Canadian senior hoped that his age and use of a mobility scooter would help him escape a meticulous examination at a London airport in February.

Instead, Montrealur Ronald Lord, 71, was sentenced to six years in prison for drug trafficking. He pleaded guilty after eight kilograms of cocaine were found hidden in the rear panel of the scooter he used.

“He obviously thought that because he was retired, he would be less a target,” said Richard Wickham, the head of the Main Investigation of the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom, a British working group focused on serious and organized crime. “He was wrong.”

Lord, who pronounced an address to the police in the suburbs of Montreal in Châteauguay, was sentenced to Croisdon Crown last Friday runs to six years in prison. He had pleaded guilty in August for charges of class A drugs.

The discovery was made on February 7, when Lord landed a barbade flight in the Caribbean and headed for the exit doors of a mobility scooter. Gatwick airport officials from the scooter and cocaine airport have found cocaine, with an estimated street value at around $ 1.2 million CDN dollars.

Lord initially denied all knowledge of drugs, saying that he had been on a seven-day vacation at Barbados and was a tourist in the United Kingdom with the intention of visiting, police announced.

But after checking with airlines, investigators established that he had transported from Montreal to Bridgetown, Barbados, and spent three days there before flying to the United Kingdom

A search also found a screw in the pocket of the Lord, which they determined coming from the siege panel of the mobility scooter.

Officials also told CBC that a search for his mobile phone had revealed messages with other people indicating that he would be paid for “work trip”.

Drugs hidden in dry ice, false grass and cheese

In a press release, the NCA said that drug gangs showed creativity with whom they use Mules.

“Organized crime groups need smugglers like Lord to bring class A drugs to the United Kingdom,” Wickham said. “They are sold to enormous benefits by gangs that deal with violence and exploitation.”

As a spokesperson for the NCA said it to CBC, “the use of a mobility scooter is somewhat unusual in a nature.

“But we see all kinds.”

In May, the British border force arrested a 23 -year -old American resident, which was found with crack, a value of nearly 1.5 million dollars hidden inside an eight -kilograms parmesan wheel. Jamie Choi, of California, was sentenced in August to five years and three months in prison.

This year too, the NCA has successfully continued other drug traffickers after features were found in articles such as an air compressor, dry ice and artificial grass.

Lord now serving an hour in a British prison, the NCA Wickham said that he hoped that others think twice before choosing to use a mobility device in the hope of deceiving British border agents.

“I hope that this case sends a message to anyone who would plan to do the same,” he said.