A British pensioner caught with a £1million drug haul on a cruise ship has been extradited from Portugal to finish his sentence in the UK.
Cocaine smuggler Roger Clarke, 74, left his Lisbon prison just weeks after his wife Susan, 72, died from breast cancer.
They were serving eight-year terms after being caught with 20lb of drugs stitched into their suitcases’ lining.
The grandparents were arrested when they docked in Lisbon in December 2018 from the Caribbean.
Clarke is now held at HMP High Down, near Barnstead, Surrey.
Its previous convicts included paedophile pop star Gary Glitter and drug-smuggling England cricketer Chris Lewis.
Clarke’s tariff expires in May but insiders say he could walk free earlier and may be getting day release.
A source said: “Roger fought to be transferred to the UK for months, he begged British authorities to step in.”
The couple, of Chatham, Kent, were arrested after a tip-off as the Marco Polo liner sailed into Lisbon from St Lucia.
They said crooks conned them into carrying the four suitcases but were jailed for eight years in September 2019.
Lawyers said the pair were drug mules smuggling cocaine destined for the UK.
Mrs Clarke was put in EP Tires prison, where she shared a 10x10ft cell with three others. The jail also houses killers.
Clarke was held in the notorious EP Lisboa prison. He begged ex-PM Boris Johnson for help and moaned of rats.
Just six months after being sentenced, Mrs Clarke feared she would not make it out of jail alive before dying last October.
The pair were caught smuggling 240kg of cannabis into Norway in 2010 before moving to the Costa Blanca, Spain.
Police say they used four cruises in two years as a front, making up to £26,500 per trip.
Clarke was moved to a lower-security site last year before being extradited.
The Portuguese Prison Service said: “Roger Clarke was extradited to the UK.”
