Retired British Cocaine Smuggling Couple Beg Johnson For Transfer To Better Jail

The British expat couple arrested last year for smuggling cocaine in suitcases with false bottoms are now appealing to the British PM to get them out of a rat-infested Lisbon jail.

Roger Clarke and his wife Susan had been running their suitcase scam from their retirement home in Spain for several years when their modus operadum was cracked and they were arrested when the cruise liner on which they were travelling docked at Lisbon. Both were convicted and sent to a notorious Lisbon jail, but are now attempting to get transferred to a mixed-sex jail on the island of Madeira.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, Clarke describes the prison as bug-infested and home to rats as big as rabbits, and begs for Johnson’s help in getting him and his wife to a more suitable prison. The Briton has always pleading his innocence in spite of the fact that he has a UK criminal record for trafficking in cannabis resin. His letter also describes the jail as disgusting and having no heating, air-conditioning or even lighting in a number of cells, even although he’s now in a block with single cells including a toilet and shower.

Clarke’s wife Sue seems to be slightly more comfortably housed in Lisbon’s Tires women’s prison and is working sewing soft toys when she’s not in her cell with four more female prisoners. She’s reputed to have had a health scare just after she arrived at the prison, and her husband is claiming he’s lost six stone in weight. Another British expat couple had a narrow escape when Clarke tried to persuade them to come on a free cruise using his suitcases rather than their own. The couple eventually refused as the wife had a feeling all was not quite as it seemed.