He has been jailed for more than 13 years due to his involvement in a drug smuggling ring
A British tourist who promised never to return to Colombia after he angered cartel members by snorting cocaine from the grave of Pablo Escobar has been jailed.
He has been jailed alongside his co-conspirators for an international drug smuggling plot, that involved trafficking large quantities of cocaine into South Wales between April 2020 and August 2021.
In 2018, Steven Semmens, 39, was filmed kneeling by and spilling the white powder on the gravestone of the notorious cartel boss, as part of a drunken bet.
He has now been jailed for 13 years and six months, alongside his co-conspirators, after he was found to be involved in an international drug smuggling ring attempting to bring drugs into South Wales during the pandemic.
Semmens said he had decided to snort the drug off Escobar’s grave after he had been drinking with friends, the WalesOnline reports.
He said: “I was drinking with a friend and they said: ‘Do you want to go and see the grave?’
“And then my friend said: ‘Sniff cocaine off it’ and bet me £200 I wouldn’t do it on Facebook Live.”
In the video Semmens is seen emptying a bag of cocaine onto the gravestone and then rolling up a $5 note.
The video then went viral, and Semmens was eventually found by local police and kicked out the country.
He has previously said the incident made it “awkward” for him to get a job.
Speaking during his trial at Swansea Crown Court, his lawyer said Semmens snorting cocaine off the grave had come to the attention of Escobar’s “criminal confederates” and they were “not pleased” about the footage.
On Thursday, Semmens, alongside Andrew Botto, 34, Shane White, 34, and Ieuan Emlyn Williams, 37, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine throughout the pandemic.
The group were sentenced to a total of more than 52 years in jail for peddling the Class A drug.
The court heard the men were often shipping the drug from areas where there was plenty of supply to areas where the supply was more limited and demand was higher in order to increase their profits.
Semmens and White planned to import kilos of cocaine from South America to the UK but the court heard not a single gram actually arrived and there was “something almost comical about their ineptitude”.
Related links:
- Colombian government forced to sterilise Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’
- Scientists say Pablo Escobar’s hippos must be culled as population surges
- Jonah Hill snorted so much fake cocaine on Wolf of Wall Street set he had to be hospitalised
