{"id":8266,"date":"2025-06-02T20:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/06\/02\/record-haul-of-cocaine-found-inside-plush-toys-at-sri-lanka-airport-woman-arrested\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T20:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:20:07","slug":"record-haul-of-cocaine-found-inside-plush-toys-at-sri-lanka-airport-woman-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/06\/02\/record-haul-of-cocaine-found-inside-plush-toys-at-sri-lanka-airport-woman-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Record haul of cocaine found inside plush toys at Sri Lanka airport; woman arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sri Lanka’s customs authorities arrested on Friday a woman and seized the largest haul of cocaine ever detected at the country’s main international airport, an official said.<\/p>\n

The unnamed 38-year-old Thai woman was carrying nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine stuffed into three plush toys, Customs Additional Director-General Seevali Arukgoda said.<\/p>\n

“This is the biggest attempt at cocaine smuggling stopped by Sri Lanka Customs at the airport,” Arukgoda said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Customs officials at Bandaranaike International Airport posed for photos<\/a> with the cocaine, which had been neatly stuffed into just over 500 plastic capsules, with an estimated street value of $1.72 million.<\/p>\n

The seizure follows three other hauls this month totaling nearly 60 kilograms of synthetic cannabis.<\/p>\n

Three foreign nationals \u2014 from Britain, India and Thailand \u2014 were arrested in separate cases.<\/p>\n

The Briton, identified as Charlotte May Lee<\/a><\/span>, 21, a former cabin crew member from London, was produced before a magistrate on Friday and further remanded until June 13, court officials said.<\/p>\n

She was arrested on May 12 when officials discovered that her two suitcases were packed with 46 kilograms of kush, a synthetic drug.<\/p>\n

Lee told the BBC<\/a> she had traveled from Bangkok to Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo to renew her Thai visa. She described her living conditions at a prison in Negombo, a city just north of the capital, saying she spends most of her day inside, although she does get to go outside for fresh air.<\/p>\n

“I have never been to prison and I’ve never been to Sri Lanka,” she told the BBC<\/a>. “This heat and just sitting on a concrete floor all of the time.”<\/p>\n

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British woman accused of drug offences appears in Sri Lanka court https:\/\/t.co\/s53nBjG2HZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

All four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested on Friday, could face life imprisonment if convicted.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off the country’s shores, suggesting the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics destined for other locations.<\/p>\n

In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 111 kilograms of heroin. In 2023, nine Iranians received life sentences in a separate drug smuggling case.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s largest single seizure of narcotics occurred in December 2016, when Customs found 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of cocaine in a shipment container of timber addressed to a company in neighboring India.<\/p>\n

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