After her family said she went missing in Thailand, a British teen was arrested 4,000 miles away in Eastern Europe.
Officials in Georgia confirmed Bella May Culley had been arrested on charges of drug trafficking.
The 18-year-old from Billingham, County Durham, was charged with 'illegally purchasing and storing a particularly large amount of narcotics, illegally purchasing and storing the narcotic drug marijuana, and illegally importing it' into the country.
Appearing in a Tbilisi court for a pre-trial hearing, Culley said she was pregnant as her lawyer revealed she may be held in jail for months during the investigation.
Advert
Officials released images of the items allegedly found from her arrest at the airport.
A statement from the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs revealed: “Law enforcement officers, as a result of defendant's luggage inspection at Tbilisi International Airport, seized a particularly large amount of the narcotic drug ‘marijuana’, up to 12 kilograms and 2.068 kg of the narcotic drug ‘hashish’ as evidence.”
Images appear to show a series of packages found in the bag, including 25 wrapped up brown parcels with a printed label reading: “HASH.”
Another showed a giant pile of black wrapped packages as well as large transparent bags of what appears to be marijuana.
Advert
The Georgian Ministry adds that Culley's alleged crime carries up to 20 years or life imprisonment.
Officer Zurab Tatunashvili described how his X-ray inspection of the teen’s belongings at Tbilisi International Airport instantly drew attention.
“I was inspecting luggage using an X-ray scanner,” he said, per the MailOnline.
“One of the bags appeared suspicious based on its contents, so I marked it with a customs sticker, which indicates that it must undergo a physical inspection in the presence of the passenger in a specially designated room.”
Advert
With Culley under investigation, the prosecutor has requested 55 days to find evidence, and it is understood that this could be extended by a further seven months.
Her lawyer, Ia Touda, explained police want to establish where the ‘up to 12kg’ of marijuana and ‘2kg’ of hashish had come from and whether Culley was ‘planning to hand it over to someone’.
“They said that they had to conduct a lot of investigative activities, so that they can collect evidence, establish where it was from [the narcotics] and was she planning to hand it over to someone,” she said.
“That's what they said they want to establish, and they also confiscated her phone.”
Advert
A spokesperson for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told the LADbible Group: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who is detained in Georgia and are in contact with the local authorities.”
Jess Battison