A man in his seventies has been sentenced to prison for attempting to smuggle a significant amount of cocaine into the UK by concealing it in his mobility scooter. Ronald Lord, 71, was caught at Gatwick Airport with 8kg of cocaine hidden in the scooter’s back seat panel on February 7, 2025, as reported by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The seized cocaine is valued at over £600,000. Despite claiming to be on a vacation to Barbados and coming to the UK for sightseeing, Lord denied any knowledge of the drug found in his scooter. However, a screw from the scooter’s seat panel was discovered in his pocket during a search.
The NCA estimated the street value of the seized cocaine to be around £640,000. Lord admitted to smuggling class A drugs and was sentenced to six years in prison at Croydon Crown Court on September 5. NCA Senior Investigating Officer Richard Wickham emphasized the role of smugglers like Lord in facilitating the entry of drugs into the UK, warning against such criminal activities.
In a separate incident, two individuals were sentenced to over five years in prison for attempting to smuggle nearly £600,000 worth of cannabis into Scotland. Jamaal Darbasie, 27, and George Manton, 19, were apprehended at Glasgow Airport with 60 kilograms of cannabis concealed in vacuum-sealed packages inside their suitcases following a flight from Canada.
The drugs, split into 120 packages, were discovered by Border Force officers during a search. The men admitted to being involved in the supply of controlled drugs and received respective prison sentences. Moira Orr of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service condemned the attempt to transport illegal drugs through Scotland as a serious criminal act.
