Bowls-loving pensioner William “Billy Boy” Eastment, 79, was caught with £200,000 of meth at Santiago Airport after flying in from Cancun – years after losing his life savings to Nigerian scammers
The ageing British pensioner accused of smuggling more than 5kg of drugs into Chile was desperate for money after being scammed out of his life savings, relatives have revealed.
Bowls-loving William “Billy Boy” Eastment was intercepted at Santiago Airport with £200,000 worth of methamphetamine after arriving on a flight from Cancun, Mexico, on May 18. The 79-year-old now faces dying behind prison bars if found guilty. But behind the alleged crime hides a sinister story that left the retired heavy goods and bus fitter scrambling for cash after handing over thousands to Nigerian scammers.
His younger sister, Jennifer, 78, was unaware her brother had been arrested when the Mirror approached her at her home in Llantarnam, near Cwmbran, in South Wales. After being informed Eastment had told police in Chile he’d been told he would receive $5 million (£3.7 million) for taking the suitcase and was unaware it contained drugs, she said: “That’s him to T. He is just so gullible.
She added: “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.”
Jennifer then told how her brother, from Milborne Port, Dorset, had been duped out of his money. She said: “I’m always on the alert for con men, especially at my age. You read and hear so much about older people and financial scams. But that is exactly what happened to Billy. He was scammed himself about four years ago and lost £20,000 to a Nigerian fraudster. 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. He told police in Yeovil, and they investigated and spoke to me too, and said he had been conned. He was left in all sorts of financial difficulties, and I had to lend him a couple of hundred here and there, and I can’t afford it.”
Eastment’s sister then told how her brother had recently spent time in Brazil, where officials from the South American country are now helping investigators in Chile build their case. Analysis of Eastment’s phone has shown he was in touch with people in Brazil while abroad.
“I have no idea what he was doing in Mexico,” Jennifer said. ‘It did cross my mind a couple of years back when he went off to Brazil with a mate. He said the friend whom he knew from way back, growing up in Blackwood, was working on a job out there. I thought maybe that was to do with drugs. Billy went with him and hated it. I don’t know where he was, but he was stuck in the hotel because he said it was too dangerous to go out.”
Her brother was once in court accused of assaulting his now ex-partner. Jennifer added: “I know he has a fierce temper and can blow up over nothing, but he soon calms down again. He’s not a bad person, though. He loves his bowls and his fishing, and for a long time had had a caravan at Brean, where he met an ex-partner and moved to Somerset to be with her. He’s estranged from many of his family members who took sides after he divorced his wife over 20 years ago.”
A judge has ruled that Eastment can be held for up to 120 days while prosecutors gather evidence and consider formal charges. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison, though legal experts say a five-year sentence is more likely if he cooperates through a plea deal.
Authorities discovered the drugs hidden in a false bottom of Eastment’s suitcase, which customs officials said was packed to capacity. The bag had been flagged by an X-ray scanner and a special detection system that triggered lights as Eastment passed through customs.
Based on messages found on his phone, investigators believe Eastment was receiving instructions from contacts in Brazil and the US. International cooperation is underway with British and US law enforcement agencies. His arrest comes amid a string of similar cases involving British nationals. In recent weeks, Britons have been detained for drug smuggling in Spain, Ghana, Georgia, and Sri Lanka, most of them much younger than Eastment.
Last week, it emerged that a British couple aged 33 and 34 had been held at Valencia airport after police discovered 33 kilos of cannabis in their luggage. The pair claimed they were tourists coming from Thailand after they were intercepted as they got off a flight from France.
A 23-year-old British woman in Ghana was arrested two weeks ago after being accused of attempting to bring up to 18kg of cannabis into the UK on a May 18 British Airways flight to Gatwick.
Bella May Culley, 18, sparked a massive international search operation in early May after she was reported missing while she was believed to be holidaying in Thailand. However, it was later revealed that the teen, from Billingham, County Durham, had been arrested 4,000 miles away on drug offences in Georgia, allegedly carrying 30 pounds (14kg) of cannabis.
More recently, 21-year-old Charlotte Lee May, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, after police discovered 46 kg of ‘Kush’ – a synthetic strain of cannabis – in her suitcase.
The former flight attendant, facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted, is claiming she had ‘no idea’ about the drugs worth up to £1.2 million and insisting they must have been planted in her luggage without her knowledge.