Key facts
- Four members of an international drug gang have been jailed for smuggling £13.8m of cannabis into the UK.
- The drugs were discovered packed into 22 suitcases at Birmingham Airport in August 2024.
- The gang travelled from Thailand via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
- Each person carried two suitcases containing 20kg of vacuum-packed cannabis.
- Eight of the cases contained Apple Air Tags connected to the same Apple ID account.
Four members of an international drug gang have been jailed after attempting to smuggle cannabis with a street value of £13.8m into the UK from Thailand. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said 11 gang members were arrested by border force officers at Birmingham Airport in August 2024 when the Class B drug was discovered packed into 22 suitcases.
The smugglers had travelled to the UK from Thailand, via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and had to pay excess baggage charges at Bangkok airport due to the weight of their suitcases. Each member was caught with two cases holding 20kg of vacuum-packed cannabis below clothing, amounting to a total of 460kg.
The drugs were discovered when border force officials linked the seizures to those using connecting flights into Birmingham. Investigators found eight of the cases also contained Apple Air Tags which were all connected to the same Apple ID account.
Carsten Kyei, 21, from Newham, London, and Nathan Vitorino, 26, from Welwyn Garden City, were found guilty and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Monday. Lewis Ross, 35, from Bolton, Lancashire, and Bradley Lloyd, 27, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, both changed their pleas to guilty, with Ross jailed for two years and eight months and Lloyd jailed for four years.
Paige Crisp, 24, of Malvern, Worcestershire; Tasia Nelson, 22, of Newquay, Cornwall, and Jaden Ramen, 23, of Merton, London, were all convicted in August. Claire McCullough, 36, of Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester; Ryan Boachie, 32, of Edmonton, London; Gideon Oluwasetemi Olumoyegun, 26, of Dagenham, London, and Jamal Clarke, 22, of Mile End, London, all pleaded guilty at previous hearings. The remaining members of the group are all due to be sentenced on October 22.