A Kent man found dead in his Peruvian hotel room had 25 bags of cocaine inside his body.

Paul Fogarty was about to smuggle the drugs back into the UK when he made a series of desperate phone calls to his family just before he died.

The convicted drug dealer vanished from his Cliftonville home and headed for Peru in June 2011 but the first his family knew he had left the country was when his mum Jackie Webster got a call from Lima, an inquest at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court was told on Wednesday.

It then took more than three and a half years for his family to find out what happened to him.

The first they knew he was in trouble was when he made a series of calls to his partner Melissa Lewis and his mum.

Miss Lewis said she had five calls in one day, hours before he is believed to have died.

“He was asking for help. He was a scared Paul. That was a side of him I had never seen or heard before” - partner Melissa Lewis

She said: “From first to last there was a deterioration in how he was. I didn’t understand what he was saying but I knew he was in trouble.

“He was asking for help. He was a scared Paul. That was a side of him I had never seen or heard before.”

His sister Sheree McNamee said their mother knew he was going away but not where.

She said:”He told my mother he’d missed his flight. He said he was in trouble and needed to get home. He seemed not to be himself.”

His mother has since died. Mrs McNamee confirmed her brother had been jailed for five years for dealing drugs.

A Peruvian investigation revealed traces of cocaine in a suitcase belonging to Mr Fogarty.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bordar from Margate police station analysed their report.

He told the inquest: “He was involved in a large movement of cocaine There had been a significant amount of cocaine in the bag.”

The report said 25 containers of liquid cocaine were found in his large bowel. The packages had been swallowed and half a kilo of pure cocaine was recovered.

Pathologist Dr Amino Abdul Kadir said death was caused by cocaine poisoning although he could not find traces of it when the body was brought back to the UK more than a week later.

He said the drug would be flushed through the blood stream and would not leave a trace.

Assistant north east Kent coroner Christopher Morris recording a verdict of misadventure said:"Paul was scared and in some kind of trouble. Tragically we know Paul was found dead in his hotel room.

“I’m satisfied that on balance 25 packets were ingested by Paul who was smuggling them out of the country.”

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