NATHAN Brandon is nothing if not naive. In an exclusive interview with the Oxford Mail from a Peruvian jail the 21-year-old has admitted trying to smuggle 12.3kg of drugs into London.

Sadly for him he appears to have seen the light too late.

Mr Brandon, a former student at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, is being held at the tough Sarita Colonia men’s prison in Callao and is expecting to be sentenced in the next couple of months.

You might ask what on earth possessed him to attempt to smuggle a suitcase stuffed with drugs into Britain. The answer appears to have been £10,000 and a group of unfriendly Peruvians.

Now he faces the sobering prospect of a 15-year stretch in jail.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Brandon described conditions inside the prison as disgusting, with cockroaches for company.

His tale should serve as a sobering reminder to anyone stupid enough to even contemplate drug smuggling.

Let’s just hope if his travelling companion Alan Rae is innocent, as he says he is, he is allowed to return home as soon as possible.

Being stuck in a Peruvian jail for something you didn’t do is a real nightmare.