Four members of a drugs smuggling gang who were part of a plot to import cannabis worth £13.8 million into the UK via Birmingham Airport have been sentenced. The National Crime Agency investigated the group, who were arrested by Border Force officers in August 2024 when the class B drugs were found packed into 22 suitcases.
Those sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court were: Carsten Kyei, 21, from Newham, East London; Bradley Lloyd, 27, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester; Lewis Ross, 35, from Bolton, Lancashire and Nathan Vitorino, 26, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
Gideon Oluwasetemi Olumoyegun, 26, from Dagenham; Ryan Boachie, 32, from Edmonton, North London; Jamal Clarke, 22, from Walthamstow, London; Claire McCullough, 36, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester; Jaden Ramen, 23, from Colliers Wood, South London; Paige Crisp, 24, from Broomhall, Worcester, and Tasia Nelson, 22, from Newquay, Cornwall, are due to be sentenced at the same court on 22 October.
The couriers had arrived into the UK on the same flights from Thailand via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The court heard that the couriers each had two suitcases which were both packed with 20 kilos of cannabis, which amounted to 460 kilos in total.
The couriers had to pay an excess charge at Bangkok Airport to put them in the hold as they were so heavy. Each suitcase had a thin layer of clothing above the vacuum-packed cannabis, and eight contained Apple AirTag trackers. NCA investigators identified that these were connected to the same Apple ID account.
Suspicions were raised when Border Force linked the seizures to other travellers using connecting flights into Birmingham, prompting them to fully staff the ‘nothing to declare’ customs green channel. This resulted in the cannabis being found.
The National Crime Agency investigated the group following the seizure. Border Force officers arrested the couriers in August 2024 at Birmingham Airport after the drugs were discovered packed into the 22 suitcases.
The case was heard at Birmingham Crown Court, where the four defendants were sentenced for their part in the plot to import the class B drugs into the UK.
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