Former England Cricketer Chris Lewis Gets 13 Years for Cocaine Smuggling

The former England cricketer Chris Lewis was today jailed for 13 years for smuggling liquid cocaine valued at more than £140,000 into Britain hidden in fruit juice tins in his cricket bag.

His accomplice, Chad Kirnon, a 27-year-old former basketball player born in Montserrat, was given the same sentence. Both men had denied the charges.

Lewis, a Guyana-born cricketer once tipped as the next Ian Botham, was stopped at Gatwick airport at 5am on 8 December on return from St Lucia.

He was carrying a man's handbag and a cricket bag full of cans of fruit and vegetable juice. The five cans held a brownish liquid that smelt of chemicals and turned out to be dissolved cocaine. Evaporating off the liquid would have yielded 3.75kg of pure cocaine.

Customs officers found traces of cannabis in Lewis's suit carrier and on cigarette papers tucked into a paperback book.

Lewis, 41, played in 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England from 1990. His professional career ended nine years ago, shortly after he made allegations that three England team mates had taken money for match fixing, a charge that was never substantiated.

He played county cricket for Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey before retiring in the year 2000 with a persistent hip problem, though he returned to Surrey last year for a Twenty20 tournament.

In his own defence during the trial, Lewis insisted he had no idea there was cocaine in the cans and he hadn't even known it could be made into a liquid.

When stopped at Gatwick both men claimed to be travelling alone, but Kirnon's name was found written on the label of Lewis's bag. The prosecution said numerous other links between the pair proved it was a joint enterprise.

Kirnon – who had also been stopped on the way into St Lucia and found to have £7,000 in cash – was also carrying cocaine. He claimed he bought his three tins of fruit juice at a shop in St Lucia and was bringing them back for his mother. He said he had been asked to check in some bags by Lewis, taking advantage of a facility at a local hotel rather than the airport. Lewis said in the trial that Kirnon had asked him to carry five cans because he was worried his luggage was overweight.

The court heard Lewis and Kirnon had known each other for a few years before planning the St Lucia trip over a game of pool. Since their arrest the two had fallen out, each blaming the other. Lewis claimed that while both were on remand at High Down prison in Surrey awaiting trial, Kirnon suggested he might shoulder the entire blame in return for £100,000.

Lewis admitted having smoked cannabis with Kirnon in St Lucia but insisted he had never even tried cocaine, still less smuggled it.