A 91-year-old devout Christian with a penchant for tweed suits is believed to have become the oldest person to be charged with drug trafficking after he was duped into importing almost 5kg (11lbs) of cocaine from India to Australia.

Police say it appears that retired dental surgeon Victor Twartz was scammed by a drugs gang who groomed him via email and lured him into importing the class A drug last month, disguised in bars of coloured soap.

Twartz appeared briefly at court in Sydney on Tuesday, dressed in a three-piece tweed suit, after being charged with importing a commercial quantity of the drug. His case was adjourned until October.

The cocaine brought into Australia in bars of soap by Victor Twartz.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said he had been tricked into importing the drugs. Citing the New Testament book of Revelation, he said those responsible should be cast into a “lake of fire”.



Interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald at his nursing home in a Sydney suburb, Twartz said: “I’m 1,000% against drugs. I don’t even drink alcohol.”

His son, Peter Twartz, told ABC News his father is a devout Seventh Day Adventist with no criminal background.

“His background is as a dentist, he is significantly religious,” Peter Twartz said. “There is no way that he would knowingly [have] anything to do with drugs – he sees it as a scourge.”

The Australian federal police’s organised crime commander, David Stewart, would not go into detail about what Twartz had been promised by the group, but said he had been in touch with them over many months.

Police were tipped off by Twartz’s family but were unable to stop him leaving Australia, Stewart said in Canberra. “There is certainly some evidence to suggest that this man was legitimately scammed by this group and exploited.

“There were warnings issued to him about his activities both here and overseas … but you can only provide people with certain warnings. At the end of the day they’ll make their own choices.”

Twartz was returning to Australia from Delhi on 8 July when he was caught carrying 27 bars of soap, filled with about 4.5kg of cocaine.

He claims he was duped by people he met in Delhi after he was contacted online. He was handed a bag just before he boarded his flight and told it contained gifts for a person in Australia.

“I looked carefully at what was in the soap,” Twartz told the Herald. “I scraped it and it was certainly soap but there were these streaks of white stuff in between. I thought it was additional perfume or that was the style of Indian soap.”

Stewart said in the past two years 40 Australians had been arrested locally and more overseas in similar scams.

The internet is making it easier for organised crime syndicates to groom people using social media, Stewart added, with vulnerable Australians – particularly the elderly and mentally ill – targeted. But he warned ignorance was not a defence and urged the public to steer clear of any offer that sounds too good to be true.