Shock as accused aristocrat shown £4.5m drugs haul
THIS is the moment a British aristocrat’s son was confronted with the huge £4.5million cocaine haul he is accused of smuggling into Kenya.
Jack Marrian is accused of smelling cocaine into Kenya
Jack Marrian, 31, the grandson of the sixth Earl Cawdor, was arrested in July after the alleged discovery of 220lbs of cocaine in bags of sugar.
Blocks of the Class A drug were spread out in front him yesterday as they were presented as evidence at Nairobi’s CID headquarters.
A policeman sliced open bag after bag of the drugs as Marrian, visibly distressed, covered his face with a mask and rocked back and forth in his chair.
Marrian was confronted with the huge £4.5million cocaine haul
Each of the 90 packages of seized cocaine was the same weight and size as a hardback book.
The packages were found in July stashed in seven sacks inside a container of Brazilian sugar at Mombasa port.
It was being shipped from Brazil to Uganda, via Valencia. Marrian, 31, boss of the company that imported the sugar, was charged eight days later along with a colleague.
Both men deny the charges.
The 31-years-old is accused of owning both the cocaine and the sugar
The case has attracted attention partly because the cocaine seizure was large by Kenyan standards and partly because Marrian is the son of a British aristocrat whose family owns Cawdor Castle, the legendary home of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Marrian attended £30,000-a-year Marlborough College, the same school as the Duchess of Cambridge.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration which worked with Spanish police to track and seize the shipment believes Marrian and his co-accused, Kenyan clearing agent Roy Mwanthi, knew nothing of the drugs.
Defence lawyer Andrew Wandabwa picked holes in the prosecution’s allegation that Marrian was the owner of the cocaine, as well as the sugar.
Marrian is the son of a British aristocrat whose family owns Cawdor Castle
He said the case was “the hallmark” of a style of smuggling known as “rip-on, rip-off”, which involves cartels placing their illicit cargo inside a legal consignment shipped by an unwitting owner.
It is believed the drugs were destined for the European market but that “something went wrong”.
The case will resume on January 19 next year.