Jack Marrian, grandson of sixth Earl Cawdor, was accused of trafficking 100kg of cocaine into Kenya

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The British aristocrat accused of trafficking £4.7m worth of cocaine into Kenya has said he is “filled with joy” following reports that the charges against him may be dropped.

Jack Marrian, the grandson of the sixth Earl Cawdor, was arrested in July after Kenyan police seized a 100kg shipment of cocaine inside a container of Brazilian sugar at Mombasa port.

The sugar trader, who attended a prestigious Kenyan school with the British cyclist Chris Froome, has consistently maintained his innocence. On Sunday, Marrian, 31, welcomed reports that prosecutors may drop the case against him as early as Wednesday.

Kenya’s anti-drugs police have asked the country’s directorate of public prosecutions to drop the case while they await a “further intelligence report from Brazil and Valencia”, according to a letter seen by the Mail on Sunday.



Marrian told the newspaper: “This is the first positive news I’ve heard during my whole ordeal. It fills me with joy to think of sharing this with my family in the lead-up to Christmas. If this injustice had continued, I stood to lose my freedom for the rest of my life and my family would have been destroyed.”

The Scottish aristocrat faced up to 30 years in a Kenyan jail if convicted of the smuggling charge. He went on trial last month in Nairobi along with a clearing agent, Roy Mwanthi.

The trial heard that the sugar and cocaine were packed at Port of Santos in Brazil then shipped to Kenya via Valencia, Spain.

Spanish police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which tipped off Kenyan authorities, believe the drugs were destined for the European market but they were not offloaded in Spain as planned.

Marrian, whose full name is Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian, was born into the famous line of Scottish nobility known as the Clan Campbell of Cawdor. His mother, Lady Emma Campbell of Cawdor, runs an upmarket interior design firm on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Campbell told the Guardian in August that the family was “baffled” by his arrest and that his innocence was “palpable and obvious”.