Overview

• At Manchester Crown Court, Casimiro De Lemos Francisco, 56, received six years nine months after 12kg of cocaine were found hidden in an electric wheelchair worth about £880,000.
• Border Force officers discovered the drugs in the seat and backrest, and NCA investigators located a tracking device inside the battery compartment linked to the shipment.
• In a separate case at Croydon Crown Court, 71-year-old Canadian Ronald Lord was jailed for six years after 8kg of cocaine were found in a mobility scooter at Gatwick.
• Investigators tied Lord to the concealment through a scooter screw found in his pocket and airline checks that contradicted his account of time in Barbados.
• NCA senior investigating officer Charles Lee condemned the use of mobility aids as particularly abhorrent, highlighting continued joint work with Border Force to disrupt organised crime groups.