56-year-old arrested at Manchester airport with 12 kilos of cocaine
A 56-year-old Portuguese national has been intercepted and detained at Manchester airport with 12 kilos of cocaine hidden in the wheelchair he was riding. The street value of the drug has been estimated at €1.2 million.
Casimiro De Lemos Francisco flew into the busy UK airport from Bridgetown, Barbados. Reading between the lines, authorities must have been waiting for him: reports describe his stash being ‘detected by customs officials, following an investigation by the NCA’ – the British national crime agency specialising in cybercrime, economic crimes and drug trafficking.
The cocaine was hidden in the back and the seat of his electric wheelchair (a ruse already fairly well-known to authorities).
Francisco has already appeared before magistrates, with a subsequent hearing scheduled for May. ND
Source: LUSA/ BBC
