Ex-flight attendant caught smuggling 100 lbs. of deadly new drug made of human bones faces decades in prison
A former flight attendant caught smuggling over 100 pounds of a deadly new synthetic drug made of human bones faces up to 25 years in a Sri Lankan prison.
Charlotte May Lee, 21, from the United Kingdom, was seized at Bandaranaike Airport in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo earlier this month after allegedly carrying suitcases full of 'kush,' a new drug originating in West Africa which kills an estimated dozen people a week in Sierra Leone alone.
Lee, from south London, claimed the drug stash — which has a reported street value of $3.3 million — was planted in her suitcases without her knowledge, her lawyer, Sampath Perera, told the BBC.
She is being held in harsh conditions in a jail north of Colombo where she has to sleep on a concrete floor, though Perera said she's been in contact with her family.
7
The haul made on May 12 is the biggest seizure of the relatively new drug in Sri Lankan history.
Customs officers posed proudly with the stash, which could land Lee a 25-year prison sentence if she is found guilty of smuggling.
Lee had been working in Thailand when she was forced to leave because her 30-day visa was due to run out, so she decided to take a three-hour flight to Sri Lanka while she waited for the renewal of her Thai visa, her lawyer said.
7
'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.
She also implied she knew who had 'planted' the drugs in her suitcases, but wouldn't name them.
7
'They must have planted it then,' she said. 'I know who did it.'
Kush, which is most popular with young men, can cause individuals to fall asleep while walking, collapse unexpectedly and even wander into moving traffic.
7
One of the drug's many ingredients is reportedly human bones, and the insatiable desire for the substance has even led to ghoulish grave robbers raiding cemeteries in Sierra Leone.
The country's president declared a state of emergency over abuse of kush last year, while security has reportedly been tightened in graveyards to stop the digging up of skeletons.
7
Branding kush a 'death trap,' Sierra Leone's President, Julius Maada Bio, said the drug posed an 'existential crisis' to his nation.
Lee flew out of Bangkok around the same time as another young British woman now facing drug smuggling charges.
7
Bella Culley, from County Durham, northeast England, was arrested in the former Soviet nation of Georgia on May 10 after allegedly flying to the capital, Tbilisi, via the United Arab Emirates with more than 30 pounds of marijuana and hashish in her luggage.
She is accused of 'illegally purchasing and storing a particularly large amount of narcotics, illegally purchasing and storing the narcotic drug marijuana, and illegally importing it into Georgia,' the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement earlier this year.
7
Sri Lankan authorities have warned of a huge increase in drugs arriving in the country via Bangkok.
'Another passenger who had left Bangkok airport, almost at the same time, was arrested in another country. We arrested this lady [Lee] based on profiling,' a senior Sri Lanka customs officer told the BBC.
'This has been a rule nuisance,' he added, referring to the drug scourge.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
40 minutes ago
- UPI
Police probe ground, abandon buildings in search for Madeleine McCann
June 4 (UPI) -- German and Portuguese police Wednesday continued their search near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal for Madeline McCann, the British child missing since 2007. The search efforts included using ground penetrating radar focused on some derelict structures a few miles from the site where Madeline went missing. German federal police requested the renewed search that began Tuesday as they seek evidence against the imprisoned prime suspect, Christian Bruckner. He is serving time for raping a 72-year-old woman near Praia da Luz in 2005. The search is scheduled to continue until Friday. Bruckner lived in one of the houses being searched when Madeline went missing. Roughly 30 officers are conducting the search using drones and a digger and well as the ground penetrating radar. The radar employs electromagnetic radiation pulsed into the ground to detect objects or changes beneath the surface, reducing the need to dig as much as other wise would be required. Bruckner has denied being involved in Madeleine's disappearance. He was officially identified as a suspect in 2022. The search is focused on 120 acres that include abandoned buildings between the Ocean Club resort where McCann and her family were staying and the house Bruckner lived in. Bruckner sometimes worked as a handyman at the Ocean Club. Madeleine disappeared May 3, 2007 after her parents left her sleeping in a room with her twin 2-year-old siblings. The last search before this was in 2023 near the Barragem do Arade reservoir roughly 30 miles from Praia da Luz. Bruckner is set to be released from prison in September unless further charges are filed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
French attempts to ‘stop the boats' are too little, too late
On paper, if I had to choose between the French police and our own Border Force to try and prevent people smugglers and illegal migrants crossing the Channel, I would choose the French police. Faced with the prospect of violent resistance, this paper reports that officials in Paris are debating whether officers 'should be armed and wearing body armour when they engage the boats'. Imagine the furore if that were suggested here. Sir Keir Starmer could certainly use some cavalry about now. But are les gendarmes really going to ride in and save the day? That feels like a long shot. Successive British governments have several times announced with great fanfare this or that arrangement with France, only for the small boats to just keep coming. We pay a lot for the privilege too. The latest tranche of spending, covering 2023 to 2025, was a cool €541 million (about £476 million when the deal was signed). It's not that the French pocket the cash and don't do anything – crossings would be even higher without their efforts. But 'even higher' is cold comfort to British politicians facing mounting public anger at a completely unacceptable level of crossings, especially when photos or footage appears of French officers standing idly by as a boat pushes off. But France does not have a huge incentive, beyond our cash, to keep these people in France rather than letting them set sail for their intended destination. Paris might also, and fairly, blame the UK's continual refusal to address the pull factors that attract people here – a poorly-policed black economy, for one – for creating a migration superhighway to their northern coast in the first place. Perhaps this move does represent a sea change (no pun intended). Having previously refused to engage boats at sea, France now says it will (although a lot depends on how they end up interpreting the need to 'respect the law of the sea'). One must pity the Conservatives, who struck several expensive deals with Paris, reading that in this latest deal our two governments have confirmed 'for the first time, the need for action to prevent irregular crossings of the Channel'. The first time! But when Emmanuel Macron's embattled government next faces down the Rassemblement National, is he really going to want Sir Keir Starmer boasting of his strenuous efforts to keep illegal migrants in France, all for the benefit of Les Rosbifs? I'll believe it when I see it. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Pro-Palestine protesters in UK call for Israel arms embargo, sanctions
Pro-Palestine campaigners have rallied against Israel's punishing war on Gaza, gathering outside the British Parliament in London and demanding a full arms embargo and that hard-hitting sanctions be imposed on the Israeli government. Wednesday's march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took weekly questions from parliamentarians. Thousands of protesters created a 'Red Line for Palestine', wearing red while encircling the building. Starmer told Parliament that Israel's actions in the besieged and bombarded enclave are 'appalling' and 'intolerable'. 'It is right to describe these days as dark,' Starmer said. 'We have strongly opposed the expansion of Israeli military operations, and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid.' Starmer added that the UK has imposed sanctions, suspended free trade negotiations, and is currently considering further sanctions. But the UK leader, his Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and his government have come under heavy criticism in the UK for not speaking more forcefully backed by actual action earlier in the war, and for not doing enough now as Palestinians face what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the 'cruellest phase of this cruel conflict'. Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from London, said the protest went on for several hours and throughout Starmer's entire speech to Parliament. 'There was a red line around the whole of Parliament,' Challands said. 'These protesters had formed a cordon, essentially all the way down from Parliament to the first bridge … that goes across to the other side of the [River] Thames, and they came back up … and returned over Westminster Bridge to join up here to make a full loop,' he added. According to Challands, protesters say that their 'red line' is to show that the UK government should have its own red lines when it comes to Gaza. It has not had 'sufficient' red lines in place, he said. 'The protesters say there should have been red lines before 54,000 deaths.' In his remarks, Starmer also called for an end to the siege and said humanitarian aid must reach Gaza quickly and in the required quantities. Israel has maintained a crippling blockade on the territory, barring the entry of much-needed aid, including food, medicine, clean water, and fuel required by generators. A famine now looms as more than two million people are facing starvation, the UN has warned. Meanwhile, a controversial, United States-backed group that runs aid distribution points in Gaza – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – has suspended operations for a full day. The move came after Israeli forces opened fire at hungry aid seekers several times, killing dozens of Palestinians and injuring hundreds more since the organisation started operating in the enclave on May 27. The killing of people desperately seeking food supplies has triggered mounting international outrage as many say aid is being weaponised and with the UN's Guterres demanding an independent inquiry. Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians and wounded 125,341, according to the Health Ministry.
