‘My stupidity caused this,’ says 77-year-old Brit, whose wife died behind bars after couple jailed over £1m cocaine bust – The Sun

An OAP drug mule jailed with his dead wife over a £1million cocaine bust insists: “My stupidity caused this”.

Roger and Sue Clarke were locked up for eight years after Portuguese police found £20 of it Class A, first class in their suitcase.

3

3

Sue died in prison in 2021 and Roger was deported to Great Britain to serve the remainder of his sentence.

But despite years of drug that circulates throughout EuropeRoger, 77, maintains his innocence and now wants £60,000 in damages.

He was speaking at a Morrisons cafe in Sittingbourne, Kent, on the day of release The mirror: “I’m doing time that I shouldn’t be doing.

‘I think it is a violation of my human rights. Sue knew nothing. I blame myself, I should have checked.’

The couple were on a cruise from St. Lucia to Portugal in December 2018 when friends allegedly asked Roger to bring a suitcase.

He claims he had done it before for the couple and despite being searched “four times” nothing was ever found.

But the grandparents, from Chatham, Knowswere arrested following a tip-off when the Marco Polo line docked in Lisbon.

The arrest left Roger “shocked” and he had “no idea” the four suitcases were filled with coke.

Their arrest in 2018 came just eight years after the pair were caught smuggling 240kg of cannabis into Norway before fleeing to the Costa Blanca, Spain.

Police said they used four cruises in two years as a front, earning as much as £26,500 per trip.

Both received eight-year prison sentences for the cocaine bust, but when Sue died of breast cancer in 2021 aged 72, Roger returned to Britain.

He now claims he is the victim of “false imprisonment” and claims his case has not been heard by a British judge.

In an astonishing claim of innocence, he added: ‘I should have served four years but now I am being told I have to wait five and a half years.

“I feel like I’m a free man who’s still in prison.”

Roger, who said he has serious health problems and needs a pacemaker, claimed he owes £107 a day for being “unfairly” jailed.

He claims authorities demanded £35,000 to repatriate Sue’s body but he could only pay £1,500 for her cremation.

In 2021, Sue’s ex-husband John Smeathers was charged with 20 years Roger from “leading her astray”.

He added: “She didn’t deserve to meet the man she met. She claimed they were innocent, which is pretty hard to believe.

‘Without a doubt he led her astray. Before she met him she was just a normal Cheadle Hulme housewife.”

Roger, who says his family has disowned him, will be released in May.

3