A former flight attendant is facing up to 25 years in jail over the weekend after being arrested on drug smuggling charges.
Charlotte May Lee, from Chipstead, Surrey, UK, was arrested by Sri Lankan police upon her arrival to Bandaranaike International Airport on Monday 12 May.
The 21-year-old was said to have been found with two suitcases that were stuffed with approximately 46kg of a synthetic drug that is known as 'kush'.
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Carrying these substances on her travels is illegal and the Brit was promptly thrown behind bars awaiting a trial.
Kush itself is known as a highly addictive mix of multiple drugs and chemicals, sometimes even including human bones.
Charlotte, who used to be a flight attendant with Tui, made her way for Thailand from Surrey over two weeks ago.
The 21-year-old was said to be vague when explaining that she was meeting a man in the Southeast Asian nation to friends.
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Charlotte spent a night in horrific conditions behind bars in Sri Lanka, with there being 19 other women in the single room and 'hardly room to lie down', according to The Sun.
The part-time beautician was last reported to be waiting for a court date after authorities discovered around £1.2 million worth of drugs in her luggage.
Speaking to the publication, one family friend admitted: “We’re frantically worried. She was arrested then seemingly abandoned and is rotting in a jail cell.
“She’s very scared.”
A second added: “She’s been told if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she’s looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail.”
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Additionally, British Embassy staff were said to be candid in telling the young Brit that she was 'going nowhere soon'.
As for the drug itself, it is said to be 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl, as it can be mixed with toxic chemicals, having first appeared in Sierra Leone about four years ago.
There are no figures on the exact number of deaths yet, though the publication states that kush can have a detrimental effect on user's mental health.
The Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital said that admissions linked to kush increased by 4,000 percent to 1,865 between 2020 to 2023.
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In fact, they say that 63 percent of its current patients were brought in with problems stemming from kush.
Authorities state that a National Task Force on Drugs and Substance Abuse has been launched in order to deal with the epidemic.
The centres opened will be 'adequately staffed by trained professionals' to assist those suffering with addiction.
Topics: Crime, UK News, World News
Joshua Nair