Naive fool professor lured to smuggle cocaine for 'glamour model honey trap jailed'

 
Tom Worden22 November 2012
WEST END FINAL

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A British scientist caught smuggling two kilos of cocaine at a South American airport has been jailed for almost five years.

Professor Paul Frampton, 68, claimed he was duped into carrying the drugs in a honeytrap sting involving a glamour model.

But the Oxford-educated academic was sentenced to four years and eight months after being convicted of drug trafficking at a court in Argentina.

Frampton, originally from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was arrested in January as he tried to board a plane to Peru from an airport in Buenos Aires. Detectives found the cocaine wrapped in gift paper hidden inside the lining of his luggage.

The divorced physicist told police he was tricked into carrying the suitcase by gangsters who posed on the internet as former Miss Bikini World Denise Milani, 32.

He said in a newspaper interview after his arrest: “Perhaps I should have realised earlier but the fraudster was very good and very intelligent. For 11 weeks I thought I was chatting with an attractive woman.”

Frampton, who was teaching at the University of North Carolina, had first travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, where he apparently thought he was going to meet Miss Milani for the first time. In La Paz he met a middle-aged man in a hotel who gave him the suitcase, saying it belonged to Miss Milani.

The following day he travelled to Buenos Aires and was instructed to fly to Brussels where he believed he would finally meet his “girlfriend”.

But after waiting 36 hours at the airport for “her” to send him an electronic ticket, he changed his mind and decided to return to the US via Peru.

Prosecutor Mario Villar read the court emails and texts the professor sent his “girlfriend” and a friend in the US while waiting at the airport.

According to newspaper Clarin, they included “I’m worried about the sniffer dogs”, “I’m looking after your special little suitcase” and “In Bolivia this is worth nothing, in Europe it’s worth millions”.

Mr Villar also showed the court a note written by the scientist reading “1grm/200U$S. 2000grms/400000 U$S”. A source told the newspaper: “At the trial he said he had written it after being arrested, but the arrest witnesses were asked to come back to court and they denied that.”

Miss Milani, who was unaware she was being used as a honeytrap, has since spoken of her shock.

The scientist’s ex-wife, Anne-Marie Frampton, 71, has described him as “a naive fool”. They divorced four years ago after 15 years of marriage but remain close friends. Frampton, who graduated with a double first from Brasenose College, Oxford, is expected to serve his sentence at Villa Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires. He was originally held there on remand but had been released and placed under house arrest for health reasons. He suffers from high blood pressure and lung problems.

The academic had been facing up to 16 years behind bars. His defence lawyer Eduardo Oderigo said: “I am convinced of his innocence.”

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