13 years for Lewis
Former England all-rounder, Chris Lewis, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine into the country.
Lewis, 41, was arrested at Gatwick in December last year after a flight from St Lucia, when customs officials found five cans of fruit juice in which cocaine had been dissolved.
He had been travelling with a friend, Chad Kirnon, a former basketball player for London Towers, arriving back from holiday in St Lucia, although the pair were stopped independently at the airport. Lewis said that Kirnon had later offered to take the blame in return from 100,000 pounds from Lewis. Both men received the same 13-year sentence.
Jurors heard that the cocaine, which was found dissolved in the liquid contents of five tins, would at 100 per cent purity weigh 3.37kg, giving the haul an estimated street value of 140,000 pounds. Traces of cannabis residue were also found in Lewis's luggage, and while he told the jury at Croydon Crown Court he had smoked cannabis while in St Lucia, he said he was "completely innocent" of knowingly smuggling drugs to the country.
He told the jury that Kirnon had asked him to carry the tins of fruit as he was concerned his luggage might be overweight. "I don't necessarily believe that Mr Kirnon wanted me to get caught, but if you infer by Mr Kirnon giving me the cans that he set me up then yes," Lewis said. "Generally throughout my life, my cricket career, when things have gone wrong it's gone wrong in a very public way."
Tom Wilkins, prosecuting, told the court that Lewis had been stopped shortly after 5am on 8 December. "When the customs officer pulled him over, Mr Lewis stated that he was travelling alone and had been in St Lucia visiting friends and family," he said. When Lewis's luggage was inspected, the Puma cricket bag was found to be labelled with Kirnon's name, Wilkins told the court.
Lewis is currently in High Down prison where he revealed he is now the anti-bullying representative, as well as working as his block's race-equality rep. "It's a simple one: either you did it and you knew or you didn't," he said. Lewis added that Kirnon, who is also at High Down, had approached him in prison and asked him for 100,000 pounds in exchange for taking the blame.
"Until that point it was a simple case," he said. "You had given me the juice, just say so, story's over. Now he's trying to get a bit of cash out of me."
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