A BRIT angler, 79, was convinced by drug lords to smuggle meth into Chile in a bizarre email scam where they claimed that a family member in New Zealand had died, according to his lawyers.
Welshman William ‘Billy Boy’ Eastment, 79, is said to have received emails from a firm claiming to be the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The emails allegedly told the 79-year-old that a relative of his in New Zealand had died and he needed to travel to Auckland to sign documents.
The Welshman really did have relatives in Auckland and set off from his home in Milborne Port, Somerset, believing the messages to be genuine.
The IMF had warned of email frauds being carried out in its name, but Eastment’s lawyer said the keen angler “fell for the scam”.
He added that the OAP “does not live with anyone who could have warned him of the possible fraudulent nature of these emails”.
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The planned route included a layover in Mexico City.
It was here, Eastment’s lawyer claims, that the angling enthusiast was approached by the mysterious “Carolina”.
The woman allegedly appeared at his hotel with “documents” he would need in New Zealand and a locked suitcase.
The suitcase, she said, contained “gifts” – but the woman did not give him the key.
“Carolina” had promised the pensioner a £3.7 million prize for delivering the bag, Eastment claimed.
When the 79-year-old was arrested in Chile, police found £200,000 worth of meth hidden at the bottom of the suitcase.
Sergio Paredes, head of the Chilean PDI police force’s Anti-Narcotics Division said: “He told us he was going to spend the night in Santiago and fly to Australia the next day.”
Police also found a “rudimentary certificate alluding to the prize” that Eastment says “Carolina” had promised.
The OAP, suspected of being an international drug smuggler now faces spending Christmas in jail.
Eastment’s lawyer recently begged for the 79-year-old to be put under house arrest instead of staying at the notorious Santiago 1 Penitentiary, but the plea was unsuccessful.
In hard-hitting court submissions, Eastment’s lawyers claimed that staying in jail was a “real and imminent” risk to his life.
They cited medical conditions, including a double bout of pneumonia, and alleged the Brit had been threatened in the Chilean prison.
But the Welshman will remain in jail as investigators continue to build their case against him and try to identify the drug lords he was allegedly working for.
Initial reports suggested that the pensioner, if convicted, could be facing a 15-year sentence, but Chilean legal experts insisted he would more likely be looking at five years behind bars.
Brits targeted for use as ‘drug mules’
BRITISH travellers are often targeted by drug smugglers looking for unsuspecting mules.
Bella Culley, 19, was arrested last year after Georgian cops found £200,000 worth of cannabis in her luggage.
The teenager, had fallen into the clutches of a Thai drug gang while backpacking.
Culley, who was pregnant at the time, spent five months locked up in Georgia.
She had expected to serve another 18 months in Tbilisi’s grim No 5 Women’s Penitentiary when she was released on “compassionate grounds”.
Eastment’s sister Jennifer, 78, described him as “gullible” after learning about his arrest.
She told the Daily Mirror: “If someone gave him a story like that about needing something delivered and he would get paid for it, he wouldn’t think about drugs or anything like that.
“You would not believe that someone so intelligent and top of the class growing up could be so stupid and have so little common sense.”
She revealed that her brother has been scammed before.
The 78-year-old said her brother was scammed about four years ago by a Nigerian fraudster who he gave £20,000.
She said: “This woman called Jennifer, the same name as me, had messaged to say she was in trouble after being arrested in Istanbul and needed money for a lawyer.
“I don’t know whether he thought it was me. He could have checked, but instead, he sold his car, gathered all the money he could, and sent it to her. Funnily enough, he never heard from her again.”
In more bad news for Eastment, prosecutors want to extend the 120-day limit they were initially given to probe him while he is held in custody before being charged.
A new court hearing to approve the extension is understood to have taken place in the last few days with a decision pending.