A British grandfather “fighting for his life” in a Chilean jail after being “tricked” into drug trafficking could be released – amid fears he may not make it to trial alive.<\/p>\n
William “Billy Boy” Eastment, 80, was arrested on 26 May after being caught trying to enter Chile with \u00a3200,000 of methamphetamine in his suitcase.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsign up for Sun<\/span> Newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Very weak” OAP Health<\/span> His condition is understood to be deteriorating – as he has reportedly suffered several bouts of pneumonia while in custody.<\/p>\n But in a new round of hope for William, a judge has agreed to hear his bail plea in less than four weeks.<\/p>\n This comes amid concerns over whether bowls<\/span> If the player is charged he will participate in a live trial.<\/p>\n His previous attempts to move from a prison cell to house arrest have been rejected \u2013 despite repeated reports of his condition worsening. Health<\/span> Situation<\/p>\n county nine<\/p>\n Inside ‘county lines’ where gangs are luring children as young as nine to become mules<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n ‘drug mule’<\/p>\n British grandfather ‘fighting for his life’ in Chilean prison over meth smuggling<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n William’s colostomy bag is reportedly not being changed regularly enough and he is suffering from several underlying health issues.<\/p>\n One source said Eastment is “very unsafe”, and said being in prison was making “everything worse”.<\/p>\n He added, “The real concern is how long he can cope with this.”<\/p>\n It is being told that he is struggling between life and death due to repeated problems in his lungs.<\/p>\n But on Monday, the retired heavy goods vehicle and bus fitter was told that a hearing has been scheduled for April 20 in a court in Santiago.<\/p>\n His lawyers are expected to appeal for permission for him to leave the Santiago 1 Penitentiary.<\/p>\n In previous court appearances, his lawyers had claimed to be in prison<\/span> There was a “real and imminent” risk to Eastment’s life.<\/p>\n He is suspected of being an international drug smuggler, but claims to have been tricked into carrying a suitcase by a mysterious stranger.<\/p>\n Eastment, an avid fishing enthusiast, alleged that he was approached by a woman named Carolina during a stopover in Mexico.<\/p>\n He said he was receiving emails that he believed were from bigwigs at the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n The IMF warned of email fraud being carried out in his name, but Eastment’s lawyer said the keen angler “fell into the scam”.<\/p>\n He said the OAP “did not have anyone who could warn them about the potentially fraudulent nature of these emails”.<\/p>\n After making the entire journey from his home in Milbourne Port, Somerset, to Mexico City, Eastman says he was contacted by a woman who told him she had won the lottery.<\/p>\n The pensioner claimed that “Carolina” had promised her \u00a33.7 million to deliver the suitcase.<\/p>\n Police said the mysterious woman had also given him a fake certificate luring him with the prize.<\/p>\n Extradition is not currently under consideration, dashing hopes that he could return to Britain.<\/p>\n And officials have warned that the process could take years to organize.<\/p>\n A source said: “Under Chilean law, this is not an option for drug crimes.”<\/p>\n The OAP’s last bid to change her custody arrangements, supported by UK-based relatives, was initially approved on 17 October, only to be overturned.<\/p>\n British travelers are often targeted by drug smugglers who are on the lookout for mules.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bella Cooley, 19, was arrested last year after Georgian police found \u00a3200,000 worth of cannabis in her luggage.<\/p>\n The teen fell into the clutches of a Thai drug gang while backpacking.<\/p>\n Porter, who was pregnant at the time, spent five months in captivity in Georgia.<\/p>\n When she was released on “compassionate grounds” she had expected to serve the next 18 months in the grim No. 5 women’s prison in Tbilisi.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Lawyers are now trying to broker a final deal that would see Eastment released from prison but only under strict conditions.<\/p>\n Under the proposal he would remain in the country under surveillance and possibly surveillance.<\/p>\n But because he entered Chile as a tourist, he is not eligible for the country’s health care.<\/p>\n Due to this the estate will have to face increasing medical expenses. Bill<\/span> If he was released under this deal.<\/p>\n “The problem is that she needs a family member to step up and act as guarantor for her health care bills,” the source said.<\/p>\n Efforts are now underway to trace relatives willing to take responsibility.<\/p>\n Eastment’s 78-year-old sister Jennifer described him as “gullible” after learning of his arrest.<\/p>\n She told the Daily Mirror: \u201cIf someone gives him a story that he needs something and he’ll get paid for it, he’s not going to think about drugs or anything like that.<\/p>\n “You wouldn’t believe that someone so intelligent and top of the class could be so stupid and have so little common sense.”<\/p>\n The Sun contacted the Foreign Office for comment.<\/p>\n A British grandfather “fighting for his life” in a Chilean jail after being “tricked” into drug trafficking could be released – amid fears he may not make it to trial alive. William “Billy Boy” Eastment, 80, was arrested on 26 May after being caught trying to enter Chile with \u00a3200,000 of methamphetamine in his suitcase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[8202,7400,6188,2607,1950,5884,3270,1211,86,8588,1122,5538],"class_list":["post-17845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-brit","tag-chilean","tag-drugs","tag-fighting","tag-fraud","tag-fresh","tag-hopes","tag-jail","tag-life","tag-oap","tag-released","tag-smuggling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17847,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17845\/revisions\/17847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\nBritons targeted for use as ‘drug mules’<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n