Montreal senior sent to prison in U.K. for smuggling $1.2M in cocaine in his mobility scooter

A 71-year-old Canadian from a Montreal suburb who was caught with eight kilos of cocaine hidden in his mobility scooter at an airport in Britain has been sent to prison for six years.

Ronald Lord arrived at Gatwick Airport in London, England, on Feb. 7, telling British border agents he had been on a seven-day holiday in Barbados and was now looking forward to sightseeing in London.

U.K. Border Force agents x-rayed his mobility scooter and found anomalies in the seat. After disassembling the seat’s back panel they found eight cocaine bricks, tightly wrapped in black tape.

He pretended to be shocked at the discovery, according to the National Crime Agency, and told NCA agents who arrived to investigate that he had no idea how the bricks got there. He denied any knowledge of the drugs he was sitting on in his electrified wheelchair.

But he was not a careful cocaine courier. When the agents searched Lord, they found a screw from the seat panel in his pocket. And when agents checked his backstory, they found he had lied. Information from the airlines showed he had spent only three days in Barbados before flying to England, according to the NCA.

NCA agents found messages on his phone that suggested he was being paid to work as a drug mule, as is common in cocaine courier cases.

“There was clearly someone higher up the chain than him and he was carrying the drugs for someone else,” an NCA spokesman told National Post.

The cocaine was given an estimated street value in Britain by authorities equivalent to slightly less than $1,200,000.

When he appeared in court in August, Lord — who lives in Chateauguay, an off-island suburb of Montreal — admitted his guilt. He pleaded guilty to smuggling Class A drugs into the United Kingdom and on Friday, the judge sentenced him to six years in prison.

“Organized crime groups need smugglers like Lord to bring Class A drugs into the U.K., where they are sold for huge profit by gangs who deal in violence and exploitation,” NCA Senior Investigating Officer Richard Wickham said in a release.

“He obviously thought that because he was a pensioner he would be less of a target for law enforcement. He was wrong, and I hope this case sends out a message to anyone who would consider doing the same.”

Cocaine is typically cheaper in Canada than in Britain, reflecting, in part, their relative distance from the source of cocaine in South America.

Class A drugs in Britain are considered the top-tier illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and magic mushrooms. Possessing, selling or smuggling these drugs typically comes with harsher penalties if caught.

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