This is the elderly bowls enthusiast who Chilean police suspect of being an international drug smuggler after allegedly finding more than 5kg of methamphetamine in his suitcase at Santiago Airport.

William ‘Billy Boy’ Eastment, 79, could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted, having allegedly been intercepeted with £200,000 worth of the class A drug on May 18, following a flight from Cancun, Mexico.

The arrest on suspicion of international trafficking is a far cry from the quiet, bowls-playing pensioner known to his neighbours in Milborne Port, Somerset. His semi-detached housing association bungalow on a peaceful cul-de-sac has now been traded for a notorious South American prison cell.

Chilean authorities say Eastment is currently locked up in Santiago 1 Penitentiary, awaiting trial. The pensioner resided in a modest set of bungalows designed for the elderly, offering social activities such as coffee mornings and Tai Chi. His arrest has left those who knew him for his love of lawn bowls and fishing in a state of shock.

The retired heavy goods and bus fitter is now at the heart of an international drug trafficking investigation involving law enforcement agencies in Chile, Mexico, the US, Brazil and the UK. His ex-partner, however, alleges she was aware of a darker side to the ageing pensioner.

“He was always shouting and swearing at me,” she revealed – but she also claims she hasn’t spoken to Eastment since 2017.

A former acquaintance added: “People around here won’t know him very well because they knew he was trouble. He had a hell of a temper and was always falling out with people. So neighbours would nod and say hello, but otherwise didn’t get involved.”

One neighbour recalled seeing the pensioner just days before his arrest. He said: “If you’re looking for Bill, he’s not there. I saw him two weekends ago, and he said he was going away. He mentioned Mexico, which I think he said he was thinking of moving to. He said he had missed his flight, so he was going to have to get a later one. A mate was going to pick him up to take him to the airport, and that was the end of the discussion.”

The neighbour said he hadn’t seen Eastment since, adding: “I don’t know what day he left, but he must have gone in the week. He’s not a wealthy man, and just enjoys simple pursuits such as bowls and fishing. What on Earth is someone like that doing mixed up in drugs?”

However, Chilean police believe the frail pensioner was acting as a drug mule for a criminal gang, enticed into transporting a suitcase filled with methamphetamine under the promise of a hefty cash reward.

Sergio Paredes, head of the Anti-Narcotics Division of the Chilean PDI police at Arturo Merino Benitez Airport, disclosed that Eastment had informed officers he had been promised an astonishing $5 million (£3.7 million) in exchange for delivering the case.

“The elderly British man we arrested claimed he had no idea his suitcase contained drugs when he was intercepted after picking it up from the luggage carousel and trying to enter our country with it,” said Mr Paredes.”

He added: “We interviewed him in English because he didn’t speak a word of Spanish and he alleged he had been deceived. He said he had received the suitcase from some Mexicans at the airport in Cancun before he boarded his flight and he claimed he had been promised a prize of $5 million for delivering the suitcase to its final destination.”

He was even carrying a “rudimentary certificate” alluding to the prize, the Mirror reports.

Mr Paredes added: “He told us he was going to spend the night in Santiago and fly to Australia the next day, but he didn’t have a hotel or flight booking. Apart from the two or three bits of information he offered us about the supposed prize money and his accommodation and travel plans, he didn’t say much.

“We believe he was a drug mule in the pay of a criminal gang and he’s now in prison on remand while we work on gathering evidence against him and the criminal organisation that sent him ahead of probable charges and a trial.”

Eastment’s mobile phone is now being scrutinised by investigators, who suspect he may have been in touch with alleged traffickers in Brazil and the United States.

“We’ve got court authorisation to look at his mobile and we’ll be working with police forces in those countries and the UK through our liaison officers to try to help build up a watertight case against this gentleman and identify the people we believe sent him to Chile,” Mr Paredes explained.

It’s understood that Eastment is being kept separate from hardened criminals and is instead detained with other remand prisoners, many charged with non-violent offences. A judge has decreed that he can be held for up to 120 days, allowing Chilean officials almost four months to compile evidence and formally charge him. Although Eastment could be looking at up to 15 years behind bars if found guilty, Chilean legal insiders suggest a sentence nearer to five years might be more probable, especially if he aids prosecutors in a plea bargain.

Mr Paredes noted that employing an older suspect is rare but not unheard of. He remarked: “This case has its peculiarities – a frail-looking, elderly person being caught with a large amount of methamphetamine who had recently been operated on and still had scars from that medical intervention and looked like a typical grandad if I’m going to be honest.”

Rodrigo Diaz, a Chilean customs official, said: “The scanner picked up something suspicious before this British OAP’s luggage reached the carousel. We’d marked the suitcase using a technology that meant lights flashed when he came through an arch in the customs filter on his way out of the airport, and then proceeded to check it in the pensioner’s presence.

“Initially, nothing was discovered after he took his clothes and other belongings from the suitcase. But the packets containing the amphetamine were found once a secret compartment in the case was broken open, which was what the X-Ray scanner had detected as suspicious.”

Eastment’s arrest is the latest in a string of similar recent arrests globally involving Britons, although most have been significantly younger than the man detained in Chile.

Just last week, news broke that a British couple, aged 33 and 34, were arrested at Valencia airport after police found 33 kilos of cannabis in their luggage. The duo claimed they were tourists returning from Thailand when they were stopped as they disembarked a flight from France.

Two weeks ago, a 23-year-old British woman was arrested in Ghana, accused of attempting to smuggle up to 18kg of cannabis into the UK on a May 18 British Airways flight to Gatwick.

In early May, Bella May Culley, 18, triggered a massive international search operation after she was reported missing while believed to be holidaying in Thailand. However, it later transpired that the teenager, from Billingham, County Durham, had been arrested 4,000 miles away in Georgia on drug charges, allegedly carrying 30 pounds (14kg) of cannabis into the former Soviet country.

More recently, Charlotte Lee May, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, after police found 46 kg of ‘Kush’ – a synthetic strain of cannabis – in her suitcase. The ex-flight attendant, who could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted, insists she had ‘no idea’ about the drugs worth up to £1.2 million and maintains they must have been planted in her luggage without her knowledge.