According to reports which are making international cricket news headlines, Chris Lewis was attempting to smuggle cocaine into England when he was apprehended by customs officials at Gatwick Airport. It was in liquid form that the cocaine valued at $216,000 was sought to be brought into England, in fruit and vegetable juice cans. Lewis had an accomplice, ex-basketball player Chad Kirnon both of whom were apprehended and charged; and both of whom are now found guilty on the charge of smuggling cocaine.
Lewis had pleaded on guilty of the charges and his defence counsel had argued that he did not even know cocaine could be converted into a liquid form. It was the case of the defence that Lewis had no knowledge of the drugs being in his cricket bag until he was apprehended. His co accused Kirnon was also found with three cans of similarly juice dissolved cocaine in his luggage.
Both the accused sought to blame the other in the eight day trial. Lewis, who claimed to be returning from a holiday in St Lucia, said that the juice was a gift for his mother and that he had no idea that the juice cans in question contained an illegal substance.
On 8 December 2008, Lewis was arrested at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of smuggling 3.37 kilograms of liquid cocaine, with a street value of about £140,000, into the United Kingdom. The Class A drugs (100 per cent purity, weighing in at 3.37kg) were found in baggage removed from a flight from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean to the West Sussex airport, the UK Border Agency said. After his court appearance before magistrates in Crawley, Lewis was remanded in custody. The trial began on 11 May 2009 at Croydon Crown Court and Lewis was found guilty on 20 May and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Chris Lewis was born in Georgetown Guyana (in the West Indies), and played in 32 Tests and 53 One day Internationals from 1990 to 1998. Reportedly Lewis played county cricket for Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey before retiring with a persistent hip injury in 2000, though he rejoined Surrey in 2008 to play in the Twenty20 tournament.
