By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 16 Oct 2015 • 8:54
Spanish pensioner initially detained at Bristol Airport on cocaine charges.
A 73-YEAR-OLD pensioner from Madrid has been imprisoned in Britain since Monday October 12, for faking his death in an attempt to evade facing charges of taking cocaine worth £550,00 (€740,000) into the UK.
Jose Luis Calvo Serra from Madrid was first arrested in March 2012 when police stopped him and confiscated four kilos of cocaine at Bristol airport.
He and a partner had travelled to Morocco, Gambia, Senegal and Belgium before arriving in Britain.
He was later released on bail while the investigation continued.
Serra was detained in Madrid in April and extradited to Britain after authorities received a death certificate which was proven to be false.
Bristol Crown Court convicted the Spaniard of conspiring to import cocaine and he was jailed for eight years with an added four months for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The NCA’s Border Investigation Team said that “Calvo Serra thought he could escape justice by playing dead, but our investigators were not so easily fooled and checks revealed the death certificate was a fake.”
Dawn Cartwright, Operations Manager for the team went on to say, “We then worked with our Spanish colleagues to find and return him to the United Kingdom to face justice. This demonstrates our determination to hunt down the drug traffickers and the criminal organisations behind them who participate in this illegal business.”
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