Chris Lewis has been jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine worth £140,000 into Britain.

Chris Lewis has been jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine worth £140,000 into Britain.The former fast bowler, who took 93 wickets for England, hid the drug in fruit and vegetable juice tins stashed in his kit bag.The court was told drug barons used Lewis, 41, as a high-profile “mule”, believing his fame would guarantee his safe passage through customs.The jury at Croydon Crown Court heard how Lewis, who played in 32 Tests for England between 1990 and 1996, hid the drug in liquid form in the tins.He was stopped by customs officers at Gatwick Airport, following what he claimed was an innocent holiday visiting friends and family on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.When opened, the tins were found to contain 100% cocaine.Ex-London Towers basketball player Chad Kirnon, 27, who was co-accused of drug smuggling with Lewis, was also jailed for 13 years.The court heard the pair were stopped independently at the airport just after 5am on December 8 last year.They claimed to be travelling separately, but a Puma cricket bag Lewis was carrying was labelled with Kirnon’s name.Tom Wilkins, prosecuting, insisted the pair had been “acting together” to import the “very valuable consignment” in a “joint enterprise”.The jury was told that Lewis and Kirnon had known each other for two years and bumped into each other in north London last November.The trip was planned over a game of pool and they set out for Gatwick in the same taxi, the jury heard.But they fell out and during the trial they each blamed the other for setting them up.Lewis said: “When the officer said: ‘This isn’t juice, it’s cocaine,’ I thought it must be a mistake.“I’ve never even tried cocaine, I’ve never smuggled cocaine, or any other drug.”Peter Avery, assistant director of criminal investigations for the customs service, said after the case: “We have got the Olympic games coming up in 2012.“And clearly sportsmen and women will be targeted by organised criminal gangs from all over the world with a view to facilitating the importation of drugs into the UK"

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