Sacha Baron Cohen jokes Alice movie was a ‘cover’ for his ‘dog smuggling activities’

Sacha Baron Cohen has joked that ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ was simply a "cover" to help Johnny Depp "smuggle dogs".

The 44-year-old actor poked fun after Johnny and his wife Amber Heard were reprimanded by the Australian government for sneaking their Yorkshire Terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country.

He quipped on Australian television show Sunrise: "You know, I found out after a while that the whole movie was a cover for a big dog smuggling operation Johnny had been doing.

"He had been using his private jet to ferry them – literally cramming them in there like sardines, even though they are a completely different type of animal. He was ramming these very high end dogs, transporting them around the world to oligarchs. I mean, it’s illegal activities."

Meanwhile, the 52-year-old actor previously mocked the apology video him and Amber made to the Australian government after she pleaded guilty to supplying false documents.

He joked: "I’m going to do this everywhere I go. I would really like to apologise for not smuggling my dogs into England. It would have been a bad thing to do."

He also quipped he had "tried to kill" the canines after Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the country would have no choice but to euthanise the pooches if they weren’t removed from the country.

At the hearing at Southport Magistrate’s Court in Queensland last month, Amber’s lawyer Jeremy Kirk told the court she thought Johnny’s staff had already dealt with the two dogs’ travel documents, adding the documents had "slipped through the cracks".

He said: "It was a terrible, terrible mistake. There was no attempt to deceive."

Prosecutor Peter Callaghan agreed that Amber’s fame had drawn attention to the case but insisted "the laws apply to everyone".