Cocaine smuggling Brit couple beg Boris Johnson to free them from hell hole jail

The pensioner jailed alongside his wife for smuggling cocaine during a cruise has begged Boris Johnson to free him.

Speaking for the first time since their sentence made global headlines, Roger Clarke told the Sunday Mirror he is desperate for the PM’s help.

Roger, 72, and 71-year-old wife Susan are serving eight years after they were busted by Portuguese cops with £1million of the class A drug on a luxury Caribbean liner.

Clarke went on to moan he has been plagued by rats “as big as rabbits” in his cell, lost six stone and suffered a suspected heart attack.

From his cell in Portugal’s grim EP Lisboa jail, he added: “I have sent a letter to the PM asking him to look into our case.”

He claimed: “My wife and I are completely innocent and have fallen victims to cruel drug smugglers.

“I’ve learnt from other inmates some very interesting, nasty stories about drugs being taken into the UK.”

The Clarkes’ Lisbon cells are a harsh contrast to their comfy villa and enviable lifestyle in the expat community of Guardamar, in Spain.

Their world fell apart when cops acting on a tip-off from Britain’s National Crime Agency arrested them on the Marco Polo cruise ship on December 4, 2018.

Officers discovered nine kilos of cocaine hidden inside the lining of four suitcases. 

Clarke claimed that he had been handed the cases in St Lucia and had no idea they contained the Class A drugs.

Now locked in a single cell, which he claims is , Clarke is pleading to be reunited with his wife in a mixed-sex jail set on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

He complained of his current home: “The conditions here are really disgusting, no air conditioning, no heating and in many cells not even any lighting.

“I’ve been a little lucky as I’m now on F wing which has single cells with a shower and toilet, mind you it’s pot luck if and when you get hot water.

“Rats are a menace, some are as large as rabbits, cockroaches by the millions and all sorts of other horrible bugs.

“F wing is where anyone from another country, such as embassy people, are shown which is why it’s kept a lot cleaner than other wings.”

Roger and former secretary Susan were convicted of trafficking after a one-day trial in Lisbon. The couple, also jailed in Norway in 2010 for ­trafficking 240 kilos of cannabis resin, protested their innocence.

Roger, who changed his surname from Button, said he was given the cases by two Jamaican associates with whom he was negotiating a deal to import exotic fruit.

He said he was offered £800 but had no idea what they contained. His wife maintained she had nothing to do with her husband’s business dealings.

But prosecutors said the pair were drug mules who had been on four cruises to South America in two years as a front for their crimes.

The judge dismissed the couple’s claim that they were duped and, as she sentenced them to eight years, Roger told Susan: “We will be 80 when we get out”.

The couple were told they would serve their terms in Portugal, rather than being returned to Britain.

But Roger, from Chatham, Kent, hopes they can be transferred to Funchal Prison, in Madeira, where both men and women can do their time.

Roger said: “My wife is in another prison. We have been in for 10 months but we have had just three visits.

“We are going to obtain forms asking for a transfer to Madeira as it takes both male and female prisoners – at least we would be able to see each other daily.

“The judge for whatever reason said we both must serve our sentence in this country and not be allowed to transfer to the UK to complete it.”

Roger has also told how his health has waned since being locked-up.

“I have a heart condition and had stents fitted in 2010,” he said.

“I was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack here.

“It turned out to be something to do with my chest muscles as I have lost nearly six stone.”

Sources say Susan is working in the sewing department of Lisbon’s Tires Prison, stitching soft toys and sharing a cell with four other inmates.

And Roger has applied for a job to help while away his sentence too.

“Mind you, the pay is two euros per day,” he said.