UK Edition
Aristocrat's lawyers say he is victim of cocaine smuggling scam
The case of a British aristocrat accused of smuggling cocaine hidden in sugar shipments into Kenya has "great similarities" with a similar drugs bust in Sri Lanka, his lawyer said yesterday, suggesting both are victims of the same trafficking scam.
Jack Marrian, 31, a sugar trader, will stand trial on Monday in Nairobi after almost 100kg of cocaine was discovered hidden in a sugar shipment bought by his company. Mr Marrian, the grandson of the sixth Earl of Cawdor, denies any involvement and claims he is a victim of drug traffickers who hijacked his shipment.
The class A drug was found in containers that arrived in Mombasa from Brazil, which were destined for Mr Marrian's Uganda-based company Mshale Commodities.
Mr Marrian was arrested and held in prison for two weeks until he was released on a £529,000 bail. He faces life imprisonment if found guilty.
His predicament has parallels with an ongoing case in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where another sugar trader has been arrested for cocaine smuggling.
More than 90kg of the drug was discovered within a sugar shipment owned by Amro Sugar Company on June 14, marking Sri Lanka's largest ever drugs bust.
The owner of the company was arrested and is also due to stand trial. A month later, officials in Colombo found an even bigger stash amounting to 274kg of cocaine on another Amro shipment. In all three cases, the sugar shipments were sent from Santos, Brazil, on ships belonging to global shipping agent, Mediterranean Shipping Company, or MSC.
Sheetal Kapila, Mr Marrian's lawyer, said the similarities were obvious.
He told The Daily Telegraph: "Certainly we will put it to witnesses that Jack is an innocent victim and the drugs have been planted in this container. It seems to be a common way of doing it, these gangs planting the drugs, and it seems this fellow in Sri Lanka is also a victim."
He suggested that Mr Marrian had been targeted by the so-called "rip-on/ rip-off " method of cocaine smuggling which involves smugglers stowing their drugs in cargo belonging to others and recovering it in the port of arrival.
"Rip-on/rip-off " has become increasingly common. According to the EU Drugs Market Report 2016, the percentage of "rip-on/rip-off " cases has more than doubled from just 32 percent of drug seizures in 2010 to 70 percent in 2012.
"Corrupt officials and port employees facilitate this form of trafficking, and there are concerns that the [organised crime gangs] may be making systematic efforts to corrupt workers in all major ports to facilitate shifting of routes as necessary," the report warned.
The method involves the security seal being replaced with a duplicate to avoid obvious signs of tampering.
Once the rip-off is completed at the port, the container is either left open or resealed with another false seal.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency and Spanish officials suspect that the shipment that arrived in Kenya was due to be removed by drug smugglers in Valencia, Spain, its first stop before heading to Mombasa.
Meanwhile in Brazil, smuggling has soared with six times more cocaine being seized this year than in 2015.