Cocaine transport record found inside the stuffed animals at the Sri Lanka airport; Arrested woman

The customs authorities of Sri Lanka arrested a woman on Friday and confiscated the largest cocaine route ever detected at the country’s main international airport, an official said.

The Thai woman without a name of 38 years had almost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine stuffed in three luxurious toys, said additional director of Customs Sevali Arukgoda.

“This is the greatest attempt to smuggled with cocaine arrested by the Customs of Sri Lanka at the airport,” Aukgoda said in a statement.

Customs officials at Bondaranaike International Airport posed for photos with cocaine, which had gotten perfectly more than 500 plastic capsules, with an estimated value of the street of $ 1.72 million.

The seizure follows three other sets this month for a total of almost 60 kilograms of synthetic cannabis.

Three foreign citizens, from Great Britain, India and Thailand, were arrested in separate cases.

The British, identified as Charlotte May Lee21, a former member of the London cabin crew, was produced before a magistrate on Friday and sent even more until June 13, court officials said.

It was arrested on May 12 when officials discovered that their two suitcases were full of 46 kilograms of Kush, a synthetic drug.

Lee told the BBC that he had traveled from Bangkok to the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo to renew his Thai visa. He described his living conditions in a prison in Negombo, a city north of the capital, saying that he spends most of the day inside, although he can go out by fresh air.

“I’ve never been in prison and I’ve never been to Sri Lanka,” he told the BBC. “This heat and only sitting on a concrete floor all the time.”

The four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested on Friday, could face life imprisonment if it is convicted.

The authorities of Sri Lanka have previously seized large amounts of heroin on the coast of the country, which suggests that the island is being used as a transit center for narcotics destined for other places.

In October, a court of Sri Lanka condemned 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after more than 111 kilograms of heroin declared themselves. In 2023, nine Iranians received life imprisonment in a separate drug smuggling case.

The greatest seizure of Sri Lanka narcotics occurred in December 2016, when customs found 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of cocaine in a wooden shipping container aimed at a company in the Indian neighbor.

• Sri Lanka
• Drug traffic
• Cocaine