Charlotte May Lee,moments after she was arrested on suspicion of smuggling 46kg of cannabis into Sri Lanka from Thailand (Picture: Colombo Police)
Officers investigating a Tui flight attendant accused of smuggling a ‘huge’ amount of superstrong synthetic cannabis warned that the investigation ‘is only just beginning’.
Charlotte May Lee,21,was arrested in Sri Lanka after flying there from Thailand.
She claims that she had no idea the 46kg stash of ‘kush’ was in her luggage,saying that her clothes must have been taken out so the bags could be repacked without her knowledge.
Police sources told the MailOnline that she insists she is innocent,and has put the blame on a man known only as ‘Dan’,who apparently promised to travel later and join her for a holiday in Sri Lanka while she waited for her Thai visa to be renewed.
The roofer’s daughter from Coulsden in south London was unable to provide authorities with his phone number or surname,however.
46kg of synthetic kush recovered by police (Picture: MailOnline)
The source described her as ‘desperate and incredibly naive’, adding ‘This woman is in a lot of trouble’ and urging her to be straight with police.
They added: ‘The investigation is only just beginning and we will be looking closely at her previous visit,who she was with and where she went.’
Police believe she travelled to the country in January,although she told MailOnline she had never visited before.
This is now a line of inquiry,as well as tracking down CCTV from Bangkok which may give clues about her movements.
Charlotte May Lee,pictured in jail in Sri Lanka (Picture: MailOnline)
The case came within 24 hours of the arrest of another young British woman,Bella Culley,on drug smuggling charges.
Miss Culley,an 18-year-old from Billingham in County Durham,was arrested at an airport in Georgia for allegedly trying to smuggle 14kg of cannabis.
The cases are strikingly similar,as both women had flown alone from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport,and spoke of meeting a man later on at their destination.
When a reporter visited Ms Lee in Negombo prison north of the capital Colombo,she claimed: ‘I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early.
‘I left my bags in the hotel bedroom and headed for the night out. As they were already packed I didn’t check them again in the morning.’
A photograph on Miss Lee’s social media shows her in her former job as a TUI flight attendant (Picture: Charlotte May Lee)
She added ‘I know who did it’ and claimed the people who planted the drugs ‘were supposed to meet me here. But now I’m stuck here in this jail.’
A close friend told the paper that she had been through a tough year,including the end of a difficult relationship.
They added she was ‘vulnerable’ and a ‘silly 21-year-old but not silly enough to do something like this’,adding: ‘She was trained as Tui cabin crew. She knew the risks.’
If found guilty of the largest kush seizure in the airport’s history,she could face up to 25 years in prison.
United News - unews.co.za