A young mother who tried to smuggle £285,000 worth of cannabis into the UK from Thailand has avoided a prison sentence.
Poppie Kudieersky, 22, claimed traffickers would have murdered her child unless she agreed to be a drug mule.
She was arrested after customs officers at Manchester Airport stopped a companion she had been travelling with and seized two suitcases containing 28.5kg of the drug.
When quizzed about the haul, Kudisersky insisted she had ‘reluctantly’ agreed to go to Thailand to help facilitate a stolen credit card racket – but on arrival was sent photographs of criminals loitering outside her family home in Denton, Greater Manchester.
She said she was then presented with two suitcases containing 57 packages of cannabis and warned that the house would be burnt down and her five-year-old son killed unless she smuggled them into Britain.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
At Manchester Crown Court, Kudiesrky pleaded guilty to importing cannabis but was given two years in prison, suspended for two years.
Her travelling companion, Dutch national Mohammed Jacfer, 26, who was living in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, was jailed for two years at an earlier hearing after admitting drug importation.
Kudiersky and Jacfer first arrived in Manchester on February 2, 2024, after flying from Thailand.
Prosecutor Philip Hall told the court: ‘Jacfer was stopped by the customs officer, as he was going through the green customs channel with two suitcases and a rucksack.’
After a customs officer asked if the bags belonged to Jacfer, he said no and asked to look for his own near the luggage reclaim.
Hall added: ‘The customs officer established the luggage tags of both cases were in the name of Poppie Kudiersky. One was X-rayed and found to contain a total of 57 vacuum packages containing approximately 28.5kg of cannabis.
‘Her phone contained a conversation she had with an unidentified person in which she accepted the cases seized from Jacfer were in her name and that he had been there for her when she had ‘meltdowns’ when they were away.
‘In another message, it is clear that the defendant was trying to get a free holiday. Pictures on her phone suggest that she took full advantage of hotels and beaches, and her mother questioned how she was funding the holiday.’
In a statement, the NCA said in 2022, there were as few as 20 air passengers arrested for attempting to import cannabis into the UK.
But in 2023, it was 134 and in 2024, 745 airport passengers were arrested. In the first nine months of this year, 680 air passengers were detained.
The court heard Kudiersky had previous convictions for battery and possession of cannabis. In sentencing, Judge Hilary Manley also ordered Kudiersky to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity and 150 hours of unpaid work.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.