Sri Lankan authorities have seized nearly 60 kilograms of potent synthetic cannabis that foreigners tried to smuggle in this month in three separate cases, a customs official said Saturday. The majority of the drugs were reportedly seized from a former flight attendant from England who authorties say had over 100 pounds of the drug in her suitcases.
The South Asian island has long been considered a transit point for international drug smugglers, and all three suspects — from Britain, India and Thailand — could face life imprisonment if convicted.
The 21-year-old British woman was arrested on May 12, with customs officers saying she was stopped with 46 kilograms (101 pounds) of kush — a synthetic drug containing powerful opioids — packed in two suitcases.
“This could be the biggest drug bust at the Colombo airport in recent times,” said Customs Additional Director General Seevali Arukgoda.
British media, including the BBC, have identified the woman as Charlotte May Lee, a former cabin crew member from London, who had flown to Sri Lanka from Thailand.
She is being held in detention at a prison near Colombo airport and is contact with her family, her lawyer told the BBC.
The BBC reported that she denied knowledge of drugs in her luggage, and claimed they were planted at her hotel in Bangkok.
Her legal representative, Sampath Perera, told the BBC that his team was visiting her daily in prison to provide support and monitor her wellbeing.
“I had never seen them [the drugs] before. I didn’t expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff,” Lee told the Daily Mail from prison.
On May 16, a 33-year-old Indian man was arrested at the northern seaport of Kankesanthurai.
Arukgoda said that he had been carrying four kilograms of kush.
He too has been handed over to the anti-narcotics police for further investigations.
On May 18, a 21-year-old Thai man was stopped at Colombo airport. He is accused of attempting to smuggle in nearly eight kilograms of kush.
The drug has wreaked havoc in West African countries in recent years, especially in Sierra Leone, te Associated Press reported. In 2014, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declared a war on kush, calling it an epidemic and a national threat.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off its shores, saying it suggested the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics being reshipped onward.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 111 kilograms of heroin.
The men were among 17 arrested in Sri Lankan waters in April 2016 while transporting narcotics aboard an Iranian trawler.
In 2023, nine Iranians received life sentences in a separate drug smuggling case.
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