A British couple has become the latest UK nationals to be arrested for trying to smuggle drugs from Thailand.
The unnamed couple were detained in Spain after 32kg of cannabis was discovered in two suitcases.
Airport staff said the couple had a ‘nervous and evasive attitude’ when they went through the ‘nothing to declare’ lane on May 5.
When they were stopped, an X-ray scan revealed their luggage had no personal belongings or clothing.
Instead, there were several vacuum-sealed bags of cannabis with an estimated street value of £320,000, leading to their arrests.
The couple had flown into Valencia Airport from France, having originally travelled from Thailand, which decriminalised cannabis in 2022.
Since then, with more cannabis farms growing the drug, there has been a growing trend of young British people ending up in prison abroad for attempting to smuggle drugs.
Only today, Thomas Parker, 32, from Cumbria, was spared the firing squad in Bali, Indonesia, after he received a package from a friend in Thailand containing 1kg of ecstasy.
He was given a 10-month prison sentence after telling a court he did not know what was in the parcel.
Last year, there was a fivefold increase in the amount of cannabis being seized in the UK – nearly half of which landed at Heathrow Airport.
The National Crime Agency blamed the growth on marijuana being legalised in foreign countries and the appeal of higher profits in the UK.
In total, 27 tonnes of the drug were seized from 750 smugglers from the following countries:
- Thailand: 460
- Canada: 108
- USA: 64
Their nationalities were:
- UK citizens: 290
- Malaysians: 162
- Canadians: 86
- Americans: 52
More than 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand since last July for attempted cannabis smuggling.
And in the UK, Border Force has launched a pilot scheme under which foreign national drug mules smuggling narcotics into Britain are sent back to the country they flew in from to be dealt with by local authorities.
More Brits accused of drug smuggling
Charlotte May Lee, 21, Coulsdon, south London
Lee, 21, was arrested in Sri Lanka on May 12, having flown in from Bangkok, Thailand. Security discovered 46kg of Kush – a synthetic form of cannabis – found in her suitcase.
The former stewardess from Coulsdon, south London, insists she had ‘no idea’ about the £1.2million drugs haul.
Her luggage must have been repacked without her knowledge, she told police, by a man she called ‘Dan’.
The people who planted the drugs ‘were supposed to meet me here,’ she told a reporter from jail. ‘But now I’m stuck here in this jail.’
Lee, who has denied wrongdoing, could face up to 25 years behind bars if she is convicted.
Bella May Culley, 18, Billingham, Teesside
After Culley went missing while on holiday in Thailand, the last place her family expected to find her was Georgia.
Culley had been arrested for drug offences at Tbilisi airport on May 10 after allegedly carrying 14kg of cannabis. Like Lee, she had also flown alone from Bangkok.
She spent weeks posting on social media about her travels, including her partying in Palawan and referencing Bonnie and Clyde.
The student nurse, who told the courts she is pregnant, could face up to 20 years in the country’s only women’s jail, Prison No. 5.
Inmates have long complained about the ‘degrading’ treatment they face inside the jail’s beige walls, where new prisoners face ‘humiliating’ inspections when they are ordered to be naked.
Thomas Parker, 32, Cumbria
Parker collected a package from a motorcycle taxi driver not far from his villa on Kuta Beach, Bali, on January 21.
When he saw police officers on patrol nearby, he chucked the package and ran, according to court documents. Forensics found the package contained a kilo of MDMA, a class A drug also known as ecstasy.
The electrician told police he was asked to pick up the parcel by a friend, who said someone else would then collect it from him.
Officials charged Parker with drug smuggling, which in Indonesia meant he faced the death penalty by firing squad if found guilty.
But after police found he had no ties to the package, he was charged with a lesser crime and sentenced in May to 10 months in jail.
Isabella Daggett, 21, Yorkshire
Daggett moved to Dubai for work in March. Within weeks, she was arrested during a drug raid in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) capital.
Her family say she was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and said she has never used illegal substances.
What charges Daggett faces have not been made public, other than that she was arrested with another man.
Her grandmother, Heather Smith, told the DailyMail: ‘He may be guilty of something, but she isn’t.’
The UAE has strict anti-drug trafficking laws. Penalties range from fines of at least £100,000 and prison sentences to the death penalty.
Browne-Frater Chyna Jada, 22
Jada was arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle 18kg of cannabis on a flight from Accra, Ghana, to Gatwick.
The authorities allege they found 32 slabs of drugs in her bag, with a street value of around £170,000.
Jada denies wrongdoing, telling officials that her boyfriend, known only as ‘Joey’, packed the bag and told her it contained alcohol and spices.
Ghana’s anti-drug agency had identified her as a person of interest after receiving a tip from foreign intelligence officials.
She faces charges of attempted exportation of narcotic drugs, conspiracy to commit a crime, and unlawful possession or control of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
Mark Siemaszkiewicz, 46, Richard McMahon, 46, Oluwatosin Peace Adefila, 27, and Bose Esther Fakuade, 26,
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Security guards at Samui Airport, on Thailand’s second-largest island, thought something was up when they saw the suitcases of four Britons.
When they pried the bags open, they found 144kg worth of cannabis with a street value of about £345,000.
Siemaszkiewicz, McMahon, Adefila and Fakuade were accused of trying to take the marijuana out of Thailand via a flight to London Heathrow.
While cannabis is legal in Thailand, it is illegal to export it. The confiscated cannabis was grown on a farm in Koh Samui.
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