Man who tried to smuggle £1m of cocaine inside wheelchair is jailed

A man who tried to smuggle nearly £1 million worth of cocaine into the UK by hiding the drugs in an electric wheelchair has been jailed.

In a move branded “abhorrent” by investigators, Casimiro De Lemos Francisco, who is not disabled, travelled through Manchester Airport in the drugs-laden wheelchair on 30 March.

When the 56-year-old Portuguese national was stopped by Border Force, he told officers he was visiting the country for two days to see a friend after flying in from Bridgetown in Barbados.

His wheelchair was then scanned, and when questioned about what was inside, he replied: “I don’t know, you will need to ask my friend.”

Officers discovered 11 packages of cocaine, weighing 12kg and worth £880,000, concealed in the backrest and seat.

open image in gallery

A tracking device used by the crime group behind the operation was also found hidden in the battery compartment.

Following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation, De Lemos Francisco, who is from Guimaraes in the north of Portugal, admitted smuggling class A drugs at Manchester Crown Court last week.

He was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison on Thursday.

NCA senior investigating officer Charles Lee said: “Organised crime groups will try anything possible to smuggle drugs, but using a wheelchair and a man pretending to be disabled is particularly abhorrent.

“The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to combat the threat of Class A drugs and protect the UK public.”

Earlier this week, in a separate NCA investigation, 71-year-old Ronald Lord, from Montreal in Canada, was jailed for six years after trying to smuggle £600,000 of cocaine into the UK hidden in his mobility scooter. He was stopped at Gatwick Airport in February this year with 8kg of the Class A drug hidden in a void in the seat back panel.