Duped in drug case, judge told

MADRID — A 77-year-old American man facing drug smuggling charges in Spain told a judge Thursday that he didn’t know cocaine had been hidden in the jackets he carried across the world on behalf of a man he thought represented the United Nations.

Victor Stemberger took the stand at a Madrid provincial court after spending just over one year in pretrial detention accused of carrying more than 5 pounds of the drug sewn into bubble jackets he carried from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Hong Kong.

The Vietnam war veteran and former business coach from Virginia was arrested during a stopover at the Spanish capital’s airport on July 5, 2019.

The U.S. Justice Department has advised Spain that it believes Stemberger was duped into acting as a drug mule for a West African criminal network, as many other elderly or vulnerable people in recent years.

Spanish law enforcement and judiciary have been cooperating with an investigation by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecutors from the Southern District of New York into the network of alleged money launderers, fraudsters and drug traffickers under scrutiny for scheming the elderly and feeble.

During Thursday’s hearing, the defendant’s lawyer, Juan Ospina, presented the judge with a psychological report concluding that his client suffers from dementia.

“He has always maintained that he was acting within the law, under a mandate from alleged U.N. officers,” Ospina said.

A verdict in the case is expected later this month.