‘Serial British cruising couple’ Roger and Sue Clarke – both in their seventies – have refused to spill the beans on their drug-trafficking paymasters.
Since their high-profile arrests in Lisbon last December – after being found in possession of over 9 kilos of cocaine in false bottomed suitcases – the couple has been languishing in separate Portuguese jails with police trying to get salient details out of them.
Who, for example, was the couple working for when they swapped suitcases mid-cruise in the Caribbean, arriving in Portugal with a haul valued at anything from €1 – €2 million?
Said a nine-page indictment published today (Tuesday): “Despite all the inquiries carried out to try to identify the people believed to have recruited them to transport the cocaine, it has not been possible to discover these individuals’ full identities or determine their whereabouts.”
Outlining the decision to charge the elderly duo with drugs trafficking, prosecutors added: “The suspects acted together with the specific purpose of receiving and carrying with them the cocaine and the objective of handing it over to a third party in exchange for money.
“They were aware of its characteristics, nature and quantity.
“The suspects, acting freely, voluntarily and consciously, joined forces and combined efforts knowing that the transport and commercialisation of cocaine is prohibited and punishable by law.”
The Clarkes, described as living at St Mary Cray near Bromley, South East London (although they also appear to have been living in Alicante, Spain (click here), are now expected to remain behind bars as they await their trial as prosecutors claim the evidence against them is “extremely strong”.
As well as the cocaine, the indictment shows police seized a Samsung phone with a SIM card inside, an iPad and a hardback 2018 diary with “handwritten notes and three small pieces of paper with names and contacts on”, writes the UK Sun.
Roger, who will turn 73 in October, is currently being held at a men’s jail.
Sue, a retired secretary from Northampton, is being held at Tires Women’s Prison.
Both face 12 years behind bars, claims the Sun revisiting the details of the couple’s arrest.
News stories last December stressed the Clarkes enjoyed up to six luxury cruises per year, and always seemed to pay for everything with “wads of cash”.
Both had previous convictions for drug smuggling, and had been being tailed by British police for some time.
The couple’s detention in Lisbon followed a tip-off from the UK’s National Crime Agency, which was reported as suspecting the OAPs were working for a ‘Costa del Sol British drugs gang’.
