Bum Rap For Cocaine Smuggler

A veteran drug-dealer, caught stepping off a Caribbbean flight with nearly £10,000 worth of cocaine concealed in his body, has been jailed for four years.

St. Lucia-born UK resident Felix Anerville, 64, of Rockwood Close, Huddersfield held out for two days in custody before eventually confessing and producing two packages of the drug.

The father-of-ninteen pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to smuggling 31.2 gms of 100% cocaine, with a street value of £9,700, at Gatwick Airport on November 21, last year.

Prosecutor Miss Cynthia Caiquo told the court Anerville, who received five years in 1998 for dealing in class A drugs, was stopped by the UK Border Agency after flying in from his native island.

“He said he was in St. Lucia to clear customs on a car he had exported there, but a swab taken of his bag gave a positive test for cocaine and heroin.

“A rub-down search and swab of his shoes also gave a positive test for cocaine, but the defendant refused to consent to an x-ray body scan and demanded to see a solicitor.”

Officers suspected Anerville was a 'mule' concealing drugs within his body and two days later he consented to the scan, which detected the two packages, and the defedant then produced them.

“He told the officers that while he was in St. Lucia he was approached by two men, who asked him to take the packages back to the U.K.,” explained Miss Caiquo.

“He said that threats were made to him that he would be killed and the lives of his girlfriend and fifteen month-old youngest child were in danger.

“He said he intended to pass the packages on board the flight and pay the men back from his funds, insisting he had not been paid and did not take drugs.”

Anerville's lawyer Miss Laura Plant said: “He is deeply ashamed at being before the courts again.

“This is not a man who voluntarily got involved in the importation of drugs and did not know what to do once he was in custody.

“He did not swallow the drugs, but stuck them in his rectum.”

Judge Stephen Waller said: “It is a long time since he was in trouble, but it was drugs. There are a lot of misguided people willing to go out to the West Indies and take a risk.

“I regard the argument of duress with some scepticism,” the judge told Anerville.

“I regard you as a man willing to take the risk by concealing these drugs inside your body and there must have been some financial advantage.

“You have done your best to keep out of crime, but unhappily you have fallen back into temptation on this occasion.”