Young British lady hung on drug fees in Sri Lanka might be related to Culley case

Within an afternoon of Bella May Culley being arrested at a Georgian airport for allegedly seeking to smuggle 14kg of hashish, the similar destiny met any other Briton 3,000 miles away.

As Charlotte May Lee stepped off her flight at Bandaranaike International airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka closing Monday, the 21-year-old former cabin attendant used to be arrested for an alleged try to herald £1.2m value of a man-made hashish pressure referred to as kush in her two suitcases.

Both younger girls had flown on my own from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. A possible hyperlink between the 2 instances seems set to shape a part of the investigations being performed through the Georgian and Sri Lankan government.

The fees dealing with the ladies, as suspected mules for organised crime gangs, may hardly ever be any further severe.

If discovered accountable, Lee, from south London, may face a 25-year sentence, whilst the rest from 20 years in prison to lifestyles imprisonment can be at the playing cards for 18-year-old Culley, from County Durham, consistent with prosecutors.

It is, then again, the context that may most likely be maximum alarming for any mother or father whose youngsters is also speaking of discovering journey in south-east Asia. Thailand used to be the primary nation in Asia to legalise the use and buy of hashish leaves in February 2021 and the entire plant in June 2022.

The Thai government have been seeking to alleviate the overcrowding of their jail machine.

The proof means that the outcome has been a gap of the floodgates for the world drug smugglers, who regard naive younger travellers as simple prey.

Last summer season, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) issued a caution of hefty jail sentences for the ones coming with hashish from Thailand, america and Canada, the place the regulations on ownership were softened to more than a few levels lately.

The reason why for alarm used to be what the NCA described as a “dramatic” build up within the quantity of hashish being detected and seized at UK airports. Almost 27 tonnes used to be found out in 2024 in comparison to simply 5 tonnes within the earlier yr. That used to be up from two tonnes in 2022.

Of the 750 smugglers arrested at airports in 2024, the NCA stated that 460 had arrived from Thailand. Those being picked up have been continuously younger folks lured right into a false sense {that a} softening within the regulations in their nation of departure might be taken as a sign.

“I think it goes on a lot more than people think”, stated Darrell Jones, who changed into the primary full-time drug skilled witness officer throughout the Metropolitan police in 2016. “What with legislation coming in certain countries around the world and society in general being desensitised to a certain extent by cannabis use, and with the ability for people to travel so easily, with a focus on easy money.

“Those sorts of groups of people get involved in this sort of consumption of cannabis legally in those countries and before they know it, they’re talking to some people who are offering them probably a significant amount of cash. And they think it’s a great idea at the time, and especially if they’re running out of money.”

In the case of Lee, it’s identified that she had flown out to Thailand in April to have fun her 21st birthday courtesy of her older sister who used to be assembly her from Australia, the place she lives.

She had prior to now loved a summer season contract as a cabin attendant for Tui however she have been coaching as a good looks therapist specialising in eyelashes. Lee had the go back and forth trojan horse – her social media profiles have been filled with pictures of white sandy seashores and events in a foreign country. But cash used to be tight. Photographs revealed through the Sri Lanka customs narcotics keep an eye on unit in Colombo counsel that the medicine allegedly in Lee’s baggage have been in massive vacuum packed baggage, indicating a prime degree of professionalism.

The medication discovered within the baggage of Culley, who has claimed in her simplest courtroom look in Tbilisi that she is pregnant, have been additionally allegedly found out in hermetically sealed programs.

Her circle of relatives stated she had first of all long gone in a foreign country at Easter with a pal on a backpacking journey after completing an get entry to direction at Middlesbrough school. She sought after to be a nurse.

Her grandfather, William Culley, stated that her first port of name have been the Philippines to “see somebody, a lad there, who she used to go out with a couple of years ago, who was working out there”.

She had then long gone directly to Bangkok on 3 May, consistent with her mom, Lyanne Culley, however had no longer known as closing Saturday as organized, inflicting alarm.

Culley’s social media profiles recommended {that a} boyfriend used to be in tow. She used to be photographed using at the again of bikes and lounging on sunny seashores within the corporate of a male determine who used to be by no means obviously pictured or named.

One TikTok used to be captioned: “Don’t care if we on the run baby as long as I’m next to u.”

Another video appearing her stress-free, had the caption: ‘Blonde or brunette? Erm, how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n Clyde making heavy figures and fcking on balconies all over the world.”

Culley is now reportedly being held in Tbilisi prison No 5, Georgia’s simplest feminine jail.

“I really didn’t want her to go to Thailand,” her mom used to be reported as announcing. “I begged her to come home. I don’t trust some of the boys over there. But she wanted to meet up with some friends she made over there on a previous trip. I don’t know who any of them are.”

Giorgi Lekishvili, a former prosecutor who’s now a defence attorney at Lawyers.ge, stated that there can be a initial listening to through 1 July however that Culley confronted 9 months in prison sooner than the case even were given to trial.

Culley has been completely shaken through occasions, her attorney has stated, and is but to look her father, Niel Culley, 49, who has travelled from his house in Vietnam to be together with her.

“When I explained to her that what she was accused of was an especially severe crime then she was concerned and visibly shaken”, stated Ia Todua, a defence attorney equipped to Culley through the Georgian government. “My impression was that she ended up in Georgia without even knowing what she was doing. She looked like she didn’t expect it to have such severe consequences.”