A 24-year-old woman from Northern Ireland has been sentenced in London after attempting to smuggle more than £1m worth of cannabis through Heathrow Airport.
Siobhan McTavey of Makem Park, Keady, Co Armagh, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday, where she was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.
McTavey was one of three arrested over one weekend after attempting to smuggle drugs through the airport. However, investigators from the National Crime Agency do not believe that the individuals were connected in any way.
On Sunday, 22 September this year, Siobhan McAtavey, arrived on a flight from Bangkok via Doha. Border Force officers found 44 kilos of the drug in baggage, which had an estimated UK street value of £1.1 million.
In August, the NCA issued a warning to travellers arriving in the UK from Thailand, Canada and the USA that they face jail sentences if caught attempting to smuggle cannabis into the country. However, arrests are still being made, and the amount of cannabis seized in the UK so far in 2024 is three times more than the whole of 2023.
The increase in these seizures is fuelled by organised crime gangs who have access to cannabis grown overseas, in locations where it is legal, who are recruiting couriers to transport it to the UK where it can generate greater profit for them than growing the drugs themselves.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Piers Phillips said: "These sentences should act as a stark warning to anybody thinking of smuggling cannabis into the UK – you will be arrested, prosecuted and put into prison.
"The gangs responsible for this trade have no concern for the fate of the couriers they employ to smuggle the drugs. All they care about is maximising profit and making their criminal enterprises viable.
"We continue to work with our partners at home, including Border Force, and those abroad to disrupt this trade and destroy the business model being used."
The NCA continues to work with law enforcement partners in both the UK and overseas to target high-risk routes, seize shipments of drugs and disrupt the criminal gangs involved, denying them profits.
Anyone with information on the smuggling of drugs through UK ports is urged to report it anonymously if they prefer by calling Border Force's Customs Hotline on 0800 595 000.
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