LONDON, England, CMC – Guyana-born former England fast-bowler Chris Lewis has been jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine into the country.
The 41-year-old Lewis was arrested at Gatwick Airport in December last year, after customs officials found cans of fruit juice — in which cocaine had been dissolved – in his cricket gear bag worth 140,000 pounds (US$215,900).
A jury at Croydon Crown Court arrived at the guilty verdict near mid-day Wednesday.
Lewis played 32 Tests and 53 One Day International (ODI) matches for England between 1990 and 1998.
Facing the charges with co-accused Chad Kirnon, Lewis claimed in his defence that he did not even know cocaine could be converted into the liquid form in which it was discovered in the fruit juice cans in his luggage.
The prosecution was unconvinced by his claims and said Lewis had orchestrated the scheme with Kirnon.
Kirnon, a former local basketball star, was also jailed for 13 years.
The cans were found to contain a brown liquid which turned out to be 100 percent pure cocaine.
Lewis, who was the bowler when Brian Lara surpassed the world record of 365 by Sir Garfield Sobers in April 1994 at the ARG, took 93 wickets during his England Test career and 66 wickets in one-day internationals, at averages of 37.5 and 29.4 respectively.
Lewis told the jury he smoked cannabis while in St Lucia but said he was “completely innocent” of knowingly smuggling drugs into the country.
“I thought I was carrying fruit juice,” said Lewis when asked if he realised he had drugs in his luggage.
