A 71-year-old Canadian pensioner has been jailed after attempting to smuggle cocaine worth an estimated £640,000 into the UK concealed in his mobility scooter. Ronald Lord was stopped at Gatwick Airport on February 7, 2025, when Border Force officers X-rayed his scooter and discovered eight kilograms of the drug hidden in the back seat panel.
Lord, from Montreal, claimed he had been on a seven-day holiday to Barbados and was visiting the UK for sightseeing. He told investigators he had no knowledge of the drugs and did not know how they got into his scooter. However, a screw from the scooter seat panel was found in his pocket during a search.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) valued the cocaine at around £640,000 at street-level prices. Lord pleaded guilty to class A drug smuggling charges at Croydon Crown Court on August 5 and was sentenced to six years in prison on September 5.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Richard Wickham said: “Organised crime groups need smugglers like Lord to bring class A drugs into the UK, where they are sold for huge profit by gangs who deal in violence and exploitation. He obviously thought that because he was a pensioner he would be less of a target for law enforcement. He was wrong.”
