General News of Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Source: BBC

UK drug man moved to UK jail

A man from Carmarthenshire serving 20 years in Ghana for drug smuggling has been transferred back to the UK to serve out his sentence.

Alan Hodgson, 52, from Carway, was jailed in 2004 for smuggling 588 kg (1,296 lb) of cocaine into the country.

His family and supporters say he is a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Hodgson has been moved to Wandsworth prison in London under a prisoner transfer agreement and will serve another three to five years.

His supporters said they were "over the moon" to have him closer to home but are continuing to fight to have his name cleared.

Hodgson was visiting his uncle's house in Ghana in 2004 when the cocaine was seized at his uncle's house.

His family accept that the uncle was guilty, but maintain Hodgson had no part in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs.

His mother, Shirley Morris, and another woman, Meinir Jones, have led the campaign to clear his name.

Ms Morris said her son had gone to visit his uncle at the start of the year in 2004.

"I got a telephone call asking me if I'd heard about Alan in Ghana and that he'd been arrested. I couldn't take it in and the nightmare started then.

"He was picked up in my brother's house with another six men and they were convicted of importing and possessing cocaine.

"There isn't a shred of evidence, not one piece of evidence, to tie my son in with this crime."

Hodgson was convicted along with Kevin Gorman, an American, Mohammed Ibrahim Kamil, a Ghanaian, Britons John David Logan and Frank Laverick, and Sven Herb, a German, for conspiracy and possession of cocaine.

However, Laverick and Logan were later acquitted on appeal.