A British man has been busted trying to smuggle a suitcase stuffed with cannabis from Bangkok to Newcastle as cops crack down on a fast-developing drug route from the Thai capital.
The arrest took place at Vienna International Airport, a city airport on the outskirts of the Austrian capital on 27th May.
The 31-year-old suspect was stopped during a transit stop on his way to Newcastle via Frankfurt and was led away in handcuffs to be locked up in preventive custody at the Korneuburg prison.
Customs officers found 11.3 kilograms (24.9lb) of cannabis packed into 13 vacuum-sealed parcels concealed among clothes in the man’s suitcase.
The suitcase had been checked in at Bangkok and was labelled for onward travel to Frankfurt and Newcastle.
Police said the street value of the cannabis was approximately €113,000 (£95,000).
According to police, the man, who was not named, refused to confess and made no statement about the contents of the suitcase.
Officials said the investigation is being led by the public prosecutor’s office in Korneuburg.
Customs officers found 11.3 kilograms (24.9lb) of cannabis packed into 13 vacuum-sealed parcels concealed among clothes in the man’s suitcase
The arrest is part of a growing number of similar cases involving drug couriers flying out of Thailand.
Just yesterday, it was revealed that a British couple who claimed to be tourists coming from Thailand were arrested at a Spanish airport with more than 33 kilograms of cannabis in their suitcases.
The pair were remanded in custody after suspicious officers picked them out from other passengers arriving at Valencia Airport because of their ‘nervous and evasive attitude.’
The man and woman, aged 33 and 34 respectively, had arrived on a flight from France and were carrying two large pieces of luggage and said they had nothing to declare.
But when the bags were checked with X-ray scanners, security staff discovered that they were carrying no clothing or personal belongings.
The bags were instead packed with vacuum-sealed bags of a plant-based substance, which was taken to be tested and discovered to be cannabis.
They were arrested late on May 5 and were hauled into court the next day, accused of drug trafficking.
They were remanded in prison as the investigation continues, and are not expected to know for several months whether they will be formally indicted and face trial.
A British couple who claimed to be tourists coming from Thailand have been arrested at a Spanish airport with more than 33 kilograms of cannabis in their suitcases
The pair were remanded in custody after suspicious officers picked them out from other passengers arriving at Valencia Airport because of their ‘nervous and evasive attitude’
Meanwhile, Eighteen-year-old Bella Culley, from Billingham, Teesside, was arrested in Georgia on May 11, alleged to have been caught trying to bring some £200,000 worth of cannabis and hashish into the country via the UAE after an apparent leisure trip to Thailand.
Culley has yet to tell her lawyer how she came to be in possession of the narcotics.
Soon after, it emerged that a British former cabin crew member, 21-year-old Charlotte May Lee, had been arrested in Sri Lanka, accused of trying to bring 46kg of cannabis into the country – again, from Thailand.
The Mail revealed that Culley had told a source close to her legal case that she had flown to the South East Asian country ‘for love’, but has still ‘said nothing about why she had the drugs’.
Lee is understood to have travelled to Thailand for her birthday in April before stopping back in the U.K. She mentioned having found a ‘job on a boat’, but did not tell friends she was planning to return.
How and why she ended up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, allegedly with bags of vacuum-packed cannabis, remains a mystery.
Relatives say she, too, had made vague comments about meeting a man in Thailand, The Sun reports. She left Bangkok Airport within hours of Culley.
Jemal Janashia, a former police general in Georgia and one of the country’s top drug crime experts, told the Mail that local investigators will be keen to explore ‘the possibility of a link’ between the two cases.
Bella Culley (pictured) was arrested in Georgia earlier in May, having travelled from Thailand. A local expert said investigators will be interested in a possible link to organised crime
Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Sri Lanka after £1.15 million of cannabis was allegedly found in her luggage
Eighteen-year-old Bella Culley, from Billingham, Teesside, was arrested in Georgia on May 11, alleged to have been caught trying to bring some £200,000 worth of cannabis and hashish into the country after a trip to Thailand
He hauntingly added: ‘Thai gangs may be attempting to recruit vulnerable British travellers’.
‘The fact that two young British women have taken off with large quantities of drugs from the same airport will interest investigators,’ Mr Janashia told the Mail.
‘They will be concerned about the possibility of a link and that Thai gangs may be attempting to recruit vulnerable British travellers.’
