91-year-old Sydney man charged with drug trafficking

A 91-years-old Sydney resident has been charged with smuggling ten pounds of (4.5 kilos) cocaine stuffed in bar soaps from New Delhi to Sydney on July 8. If the charge filed against the elderly man is proven, he will become the oldest drug dealer in history.

Victor Twartz, a resident of Sydney, was reportedly caught carrying packets of 27 bar soaps, which turned out to be carriers of 4.5 kg drug. He appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday morning with a scarf and a tie around his neck. The retired oral surgeon was holidaying in India, but according to his own accounts, least did he expect he would be arrested on charges of importing drugs once he landed home. He was arrested at the Sydney airport on July 8, on his way back from Delhi.

"I looked carefully what was in the soap," Mr Twartz said outside his Eastwood nursing home after the case was adjourned. "I scraped it and it was certainly soap but there were these streaks of white stuff in between. I thought it was additional perfume or that was the style of Indian soap."

Sydney Morning Herald reported that Twartz said it all began with an email which claimed to be sent from the World Bank in Switzerland and had asked him to first come to London and then to India. According to Twartz, he would not have responded positively if he was required to pay any money, but on the contrary, all his travel expenses were borne by those people. They also sent AU$600 for his passport. He was in Delhi for five days when he met a “nothing special” man at the hotel who arranged the deal. Twartz was requested by this man to send the gift soap to his family in Australia along with a few sign related documents.

Twartz defended himself by saying that he had no idea he was being used to send drugs across borders and that he is 1000 percent against drugs and doesn’t even drink alcohol.

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