Retired Maine man released from Spanish prison after drug smuggling scam

Sen. Susan Collins helped secure the man's release. AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite, File

June 14, 2016

1 minute to read

A retired Maine pastor who had been incarcerated in a Spanish prison for allegedly acting as a drug mule has been released as U.S. officials decried the situation as a deceptive scam targeting the elderly.

J. Bryon Martin, 77, was arrested last July at a Madrid airport after unknowingly bringing two kilos of cocaine in his luggage, said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. The smuggling operation was part of a scam in which drug smugglers single out elderly people to act as drug mules, Collins said.

According to Congressional testimony from his son, Martin had befriended a person on an internet chat site named “Joy,” and sporadically sent her money over the past five years. The woman then asked Martin to go to South America to get important real estate documents and bring them to her in London.

Martin flew to Peru, where he picked up two sealed packages and a ticket to London with a layover in Madrid. Security in Madrid arrested him after looking through those packages and finding $450,000 of drugs. He was sentenced to six years in Spanish prison, according to a statement from Collins.

Collins, the Chairwoman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, joined other committee members in pushing the State Department to work to release Martin.

“It is wonderful news that Mr. Martin has finally been released from prison and will be reunited with his family,” Collins said. “This was a truly tragic case, and I’m delighted that my staff and I were able to raise Mr. Martin’s case to the appropriate authorities and help facilitate his release.”

In February, Martin’s son Andy spoke before a congressional hearing about the arrest. Martin is one of at least 145 Americans arrested abroad as part of a deceptive drug smuggling scam, according to Collins’s office.

“The idea that my dad is now a convicted international drug smuggler is surreal, as he had no prior criminal history,” Martin said in February. “I don’t recall him ever getting so much as a speeding ticket or parking ticket in his entire life.”