Gang paid for extra baggage to smuggle 460kg of drugs

A gang of drug smugglers paid extra baggage charges as they attempted to smuggle 22 suitcases packed with cannabis from Thailand to Birmingham.

The 11-strong group travelled via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and were arrested at Birmingham Airport on 9 August 2024.

UK Border Force seized 460kg (1,014lb) of the Class B drug, which had a street value of £13.8m.

Each person was arrested with two large suitcases containing 20kg (44lb) of cannabis that were so heavy they had to pay an excess charge at Bangkok Airport to put them in the hold.

Suspicions were raised when four passengers with two large suitcases each had travelled from Birmingham to Charles De Gaulle earlier that day.

The baggage contained a thin layer of clothing on top of vacuum-packed cannabis, and eight contained Apple AirTag trackers - all connected to the same Apple ID account.

On Wednesday, the final members of the group were found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court.

Paige Crisp, 24, of Malvern, Worcestershire, Tasia Nelson, 22, of Newquay, Cornwall, and Jaden Ramen, 23, of Merton, London, were all convicted of attempting to carry, remove, deposit, harbour, keep, conceal and deal with Class B drugs with intent to evade prohibition on importing.

Carsten Kyei, 21, of Plaistow, London and Nathan Vitorino, 26, of Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, were both found guilty at a previous three-week trial on 26 May.

Bradley Lloyd, 27, of Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, and Lewis Ross, 35, of Bolton, Lancashire, both changed their plea to guilty at the same trial.

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 a previous hearing.

Kyei, Vitorino, Boachie, Olumoyegun, Ross, Lloyd, and McCullough are due to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 3 September.

Clarke faces a further offence of failing to surrender to police with a pre-trial review set to take place on the same date.

Nelson, Crisp, and Ramen will be sentenced at the same court on 22 October.

National Crime Agency (NCA) senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said a "huge amount of planning" had gone into what he described as a "sophisticated attempt" to bring hundreds of kilos of cannabis into the UK.

"The detailed co-ordinated flights and luggage demonstrate the lengths criminals will go to in order to hide their offending," he said.

"With thanks to Border Force, we were able to confiscate these drugs and stop criminals from benefiting financially from the damage they cause."

Adam Chatfield, head of Border Force Midlands Command, added: "These convictions should be a stark warning to anyone considering bringing cannabis into the UK.

"The young people involved now face a serious crime on their records, damaging their job prospects and life chances."

According to the NCA, the number of people trying to bring cannabis into the UK has sharply increased over recent years.

In 2024, 801 cannabis smugglers were caught arriving in the UK by plane - an increase of 464% on 2023.

This figure rose to 976 in 2025 and it is on track to rise again in 2026, with 600 air passenger couriers arrested from January to June.

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