PENSIONERS RUN DRUGS TO BOOST CASH

POLICE in the south of France have detained a 72-year-old Spaniard for
transporting drugs, the 12th old-age pensioner caught this year, French
customs said yesterday.

The unnamed Spaniard, the oldest to be caught so far, was from Madrid and
was carrying 22lb of cocaine in his car when he was stopped on Monday as he
crossed from Italy. Police in Nice said the new breed of drug smugglers was
likely to be European, aged more than 60, retired, carrying little luggage
and travelling alone.

Odile Gonthier, deputy head of customs in the Alpes Maritimes department,
around Nice, said: "It's too early to talk about an established phenomenon,
but more of a trend that is growing." The last old-aged smuggler caught in
Nice was a Briton of 66 who was arrested at the city's airport in March
with cocaine and heroin hidden in an aerosol and a can of shaving foam.

Over the past six months, French police have arrested 10 others, four at
Paris's Orly airport. One was carrying 17lb of cocaine. The other six were
caught in the Paris suburbs, at the Channel port of Dunkirk and on the
Spanish, Belgian and German frontiers.

Police say the smugglers include both men and women who travel by car,
aircraft or train, apparently confident that their silver hair will put
them above suspicion. They have been caught carrying cocaine, heroin,
cannabis resin and ecstasy.

The trend for older people to turn to drug running was first noted in 1996
on France's border with Spain when two Italians, aged 58 and 61, were
caught with 26lb of cocaine under the back seat of their car on which the
woman's 81-year-old mother was sitting.

Gilles Rouveure, a senior Nice police officer, said: "Their motive is to
earn money to improve their lifestyle or repay their debts. Of course, they
all say they did not know what they were carrying." One disabled Turk was
caught carrying cocaine hidden inside the tubular structure of his wheelchair.