A retired American casino manager is facing life in prison after he was arrested allegedly with cocaine worth $340k in his luggage in the Philippines.

Stephen Joseph Szuhar, 75, travelled from Brazil on a connecting flight in Qatar before arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila where the white powdery substance sealed in plastic sheets lining his suitcase was allegedly found on September 27.

He was taken to the immigration detention facility, where his bags were further inspected and the suspected drugs were found to weigh a total of 3.7kg. Police said the powder was identified as cocaine after officers ran a sample in a handheld narcotics analyzer.

The former casino boss has now been remanded in custody during the investigation while the drugs were sent to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency labs for further examinations.

Airport Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group commander Gerald Javier said: ‘This started from intelligence information from our counterparts saying a certain individual will bring an undetermined amount of illegal drugs here.'

The American national was identified and detained upon arriving at the airport in the Philippines capital, police said.

The pensioner, who claimed to be the husband of a well-known U.S. actress, told police he was rich and did not need to sell cocaine for money.

He said: ‘I don't need to sell cocaine. I am a multimillionaire. We don't need money to sell cocaine, believe me.

‘So you think I'm going to waste my time to get cocaine to somebody? That is stupid.'

He also claimed that he did not know what was inside the suitcase as it was meant for a bank chief in the Philippines.

He said: ‘The bank in Brazil told me they were going to send some clothes to the bank here in Manila.'

Police said that Stephen is still in custody on Wednesday while interrogations continue.