Briton Gran who smuggled cocaine on a cruise ship died of cancer alone in a Portuguese prison

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A British gran who was caught smuggling £1m worth of cocaine aboard a cruise ship has died alone, in agony in her cramped cell.

Susan Clark, 72, died of breast cancer on October 10 in the Portuguese prison where she was serving an eight-year sentence.

The Mirror reported that as her condition worsened, she was allowed one last visit from her partner Roger, 73, two years after they were locked in separate cells.

A source stated that Susan was due to return to England to end her prison term and that the absence of her family in her last moments must have been “torture”.

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They said: “She was sentenced to life imprisonment – she was left to die in a foreign prison with no loved ones around.

Four weeks ago, she made one last visit with Roger. They saw each other through the window of Perspex.

“She had a lump in her throat which meant she couldn’t actually speak.

She was battling breast cancer but doctors in Portugal decided there was nothing they could do for her, so they stopped her treatment.

“She was in so much pain. Roger seemed to think they had won a battle to get back to the UK, so he was shocked she wasn’t good enough to make the move.”

The couple were arrested following a tip-off when the Marco Polo cruise ship sailed to Lisbon from the Caribbean in December 2018.

Susan and Roger Clark were imprisoned in September 2019 for eight years (Photo: MDM) Read more related articles

Police found 20 pounds of cocaine in the linings of four bags.

They claimed they were tricked by scammers into getting them – but both were sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2019.

Prosecutors said the two were drug mules smuggling cocaine bound for the UK who used four cruises in two years as a front for their crimes, amounting to up to £26,500 per trip.

Susan was placed in the rat-infested EP Tires prison in Lisbon, where she shared a 10-by-10-foot cell with three others. It is home to dangerous criminals, including murderers.

The couple were arrested in December 2018 and the officers were informed by the National Crime Agency (Photo: Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)

Six months after her sentencing, the former secretary told us that she had lost two and a half stones, and was afraid she would not make it out of prison alive.

“My health is poor. I have been sentenced to death. What worries me is that I will be left in a box.”

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Susan, who has eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, cried, “We feel completely abandoned. We were ignored by the State Department, and Boris Johnson didn’t help us.”

“I can understand why people think we’re guilty but we’re not.”

Susan died a few weeks before she was due to return to the UK to serve the rest of her sentence (Image: Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)

The couple, from Chatham, Kent, who claimed to have been smuggling exotic fruits, were earlier caught smuggling 240kg of cannabis into Norway in 2010.

After spending some time, they moved to a villa in Guardamar, on the Spanish Costa Blanca.

Roger has now been moved from his cell in EP Lisbon Prison to a lower security location.

The Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in Portugal.

Susan lost her battle to breast cancer last Sunday (Image: Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)

EP Lisbon Tires is home to 400 prisoners, including murderers.

In 10-square-foot cells infested with rats, they are put to work making clothes, rugs or other items and given lessons in housekeeping, languages, and mother care.

Among the British prisoners is caregiver Sophie Gray, then 25, of Langovan, Wales, who spent more than three months there while being accused of assaulting a policeman in 2017, before being released.

At the time, Father Roger said, “They have two hours where they are allowed out into a concrete yard but that’s it. It’s bleak.”

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