Roger Clarke, the 79-year-old British pensioner convicted of smuggling £1 million worth of cocaine, has been released from prison and has travelled to Spain's Costa Blanca. Clarke was sentenced in Portugal alongside his wife Susan, who died of cancer in a Lisbon prison cell in 2021 at age 72. He was extradited to the UK that same year.
Release and Move to Spain
Clarke posted on Facebook that he has travelled to Rojales in Alicante, just a 15-minute drive from Guardamar del Segura where he and Susan once lived in a white-washed villa. A source commented: 'Roger spent a long time in jail and it's taken its toll. But the fact he's free and claiming he's jetting to Spain on holiday is staggering. You'd think he'd keep a low profile.'
In 2017, the couple were regulars at the Med Bistro & Bar in El Raso, a housing estate with villas costing up to €300,000 (£259,000), and joined the bar's golf society. A regular said: 'They did not come in to the bar so much to drink but to play golf. They liked to put on the golf society's colours and liked to play a few rounds.'
Previous Conviction and Extradition
Clarke and his wife were arrested on the Marco Polo cruise liner as it sailed into Lisbon in December 2018, carrying cocaine worth £1 million. In 2024, the Mirror tracked Clarke down while he was on day release from HMP Standford Hill on the Isle of Sheppey. He claimed he should have been released in December 2022, halfway through his eight-year sentence, but his complaints led to his transfer to a closed maximum security jail.
Speaking in a Morrisons supermarket café, Clarke said: 'A friend asked me to carry a suitcase back from the Caribbean. We had done it for them before and were searched four times but there was never anything to find. When we pulled into Lisbon the police came on and said, "Can we take a look in your suitcase?" I said, "Of course you can." In the lining was cocaine. I was shocked. I had no idea.'
Claims of Innocence and Human Rights Bid
Clarke insisted he was fitted up but blamed himself: 'People say, "Do you want revenge?" What's the point? It won't bring my Susan back. My stupidity, that's what caused this.' He claimed he was planning a human rights compensation bid for nearly £60,000 for 'false imprisonment', arguing he had served more than half his term and should have been released earlier. He said: 'My argument is I've not been sentenced in the UK by a judge. I should have served four years but now I'm being told to do five and a half. I feel like I'm a free man still in prison. I'm doing time I shouldn't be doing. I think it's a breach of my human rights.'
Health Issues and Wife's Death
Clarke, who has serious health issues and needs a pacemaker, said authorities demanded £35,000 to repatriate Susan's body but he could only afford £1,500 for her cremation. He added: 'Being without Susan is so difficult. I wasn't able to go to her funeral. All I want now is to hold a memorial service. I don't have many years left now. I'm quite a sick man.'
Previous Drug Conviction in Norway
Court documents reveal Clarke and his wife were previously jailed for being couriers for an 'organised criminal group', importing cannabis worth £1 million over 15 months into Norway. They went on at least 16 drug-smuggling trips in a battered old car. After their 2004 arrest in Oslo, they skipped bail and returned home, changed their names and moved into sheltered housing. A picture of Clarke in a local paper led to their arrest and extradition to Norway, where they were jailed in 2011.
