90-year-old drug mule calls jail a 'death sentence'

A 90-year-old convicted drug smuggler has called his three-year prison term "a death sentence" and threatened to kill himself after he's put behind bars.

Leo Sharp was sentenced to three years in a US federal prison on Wednesday — his 90th birthday — for driving truckloads of cocaine into Michigan for a Mexican drug cartel, reports Reuters.

Prosecutors said Sharp exploited his age and frail appearance to shake off suspicions for more than a decade, until he was busted in October 2011 with 104 bricks of cocaine in the back of his truck.

Sharp also drove bags of cash back to the United States' southwest border to deliver to the cartel.

He pleaded guilty to the crime in 2012 in exchange for a five-year prison term, but had hoped he would receive a supervised release or home confinement.

"I'm really heartbroken that I did what I did. But it's done," an emotional Sharp told the judge before his sentencing.

His attorney argued that dementia caused Sharp's "bad judgement" and cited his service in the US military, when he fought Nazis in Italy during World War II.

The judge didn't buy it.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said she doesn't doubt Sharp's prison term "will be difficult" but added that "respect for the law" requires he be punished, according to the Associated Press.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Sharp threatened to commit suicide when he's put behind bars.

"I won't [spend a night in prison]," Sharp said, according to ABC7 News.

"I'll f---ing kill myself, the moment I get in."