THE daughter of a man charged with trying to smuggle more than £1m of cocaine out of Peru last night insisted: “He couldn’t have done it.”
Father-of-two Alan Rae, 39, of Faringdon, is facing up to 15 years in one of the world’s most notorious prisons after being arrested by guards at Lima Airport in April last year.
On Tuesday the Oxford Mail revealed how his travelling partner Nathan Brandon, 21, of Abingdon, is facing the same charges.
They are both accused of smuggling between 12kg and 18kg of Peruvian Flake – one of the world’s most sought-after strains of cocaine.
Last night, Rae’s 16-year-old daughter Aimee revealed how her father had become a granddad while in prison – and insisted he did not have the intelligence to be an international drug smuggler.
She said: “I just can’t believe this is happening. I know my dad and there is no way he would get mixed up in something like this.
“The last few months have been terrible for all of us. Nobody seems to know what is going on and we only get to speak to him when he has the money to make a call.
“I gave birth to Josh five months ago, but he has never seen his granddad. I know it is breaking my dad’s heart that he is stuck over there and missing out on Josh’s first few months.
“Without being rude, my dad is not bright enough to have done this.
“He was not an angel, but this is major international drug trafficking we’re talking about.”
Rae is originally from Kidlington, while Brandon was working as a trainee manager at Tesco in Abingdon before his trip to South America.
Aimee, who lives with her mother and 13-year-old sister Lorna in Kidlington, claimed her father is living in “disgusting” conditions in the Sarita Colonia men’s prison in Callao, where he is being held alongside Brandon.
She said: “Everything in a prison in Peru revolves around money. You have to buy your food, mattresses, even water.
“If you run out of money – tough. Dad has had money taken by both guards and a man posing as a lawyer. It seems so corrupt.
“In the summer it gets so hot it is unbearable, and in winter he freezes. Some days he wakes up and there are up to 20 cockroaches crawling on his body.
“We are all so worried for him. We are desperate to go over, but it would cost too much money.”
Both men have been given state-appointed lawyers because it would cost a six-figure sum to send over a British one.
They are expected to stand trial sometime before March.
If convicted, they could be sent to Lurigancho, thought to be one of the most notorious prisons on earth, which is rife with disease, malnutrition and rioting.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed both Rae and Brandon were receiving “consular help”.
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