Female volleyball pro one of three jailed after 100 kilos of cannabis seized at Heathrow

Raekelle Powell, 22, from Toronto, Canada and drugs in suitcase - (National Crime Agency)

A female volleyball pro is one three people jailed over seperate attempts to smuggle more than £3million of cannabis into the UK via Heathrow.

Raekelle Powell, 22, was stopped when officers discovered 19 kilos of the Class B drug with a street value of £600,000 in her luggage.

When interviewed Powell, from Toronto in Canada, said she was paid 300 Canadian dollars (£166) to carry the suitcase on September 20 this year.

Two days later, Siobhan McAtavey, 24, from Northern Ireland, arrived on a flight from Bangkok in Thailand via Doha in Qatar.

Border Force officers found 44 kilos of the same illegal drug worth £1.1m in her baggage.

The same day, Malaysian national Meu Chew Wong, 42, arrived from Bangkok via Bahrain and was arrested after Customs discovered 43 kilos of cannabis with a UK street value of £1.26m in two suitcases.

Wong claimed he was transporting birds’ nests for a payment of 10,000 Malaysian Ringgit (approximately £1,775).

At Isleworth Crown Court, having pleaded guilty to smuggling cannabis Powell was sentenced to 15 months, McAtavey received 20 months, and Wong got 16 months in jail. The suspects are not believed to be connected.

NCA senior investigating officer Piers Phillips said: “These sentences should act as a stark warning to anybody thinking of smuggling cannabis into the UK – you will be arrested, prosecuted and put into prison.

“The gangs responsible for this trade have no concern for the fate of the couriers they employ to smuggle the drugs. All they care about is maximising profit and making their criminal enterprises viable.

Three people have been jailed after more than 100 kilos of cannabis was smuggled into the UK via Heathrow Airport.

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— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) November 1, 2024

“We continue to work with our partners at home, including Border Force, and those abroad to disrupt this trade and destroy the business model being used.”

In August, the NCA issued a warning to travellers arriving into the UK from Thailand, Canada and the USA that they face jail sentences if caught attempting to smuggle cannabis into Britain.

The amount of cannabis seized in the UK so far in 2024 is three times more than the whole of 2023.

A spokesman said: “The increase in these seizures is fuelled by organised crime gangs who have access to cannabis grown overseas, in locations where it is legal, who are recruiting couriers to transport it to the UK where it can generate greater profit for them than growing the drugs themselves.

“The NCA continues to work with law enforcement partners in both the UK and overseas to target high-risk routes, seize shipments of drugs and disrupt the criminal gangs involved, denying them profits.”

Anyone with information on the smuggling of drugs through UK ports can call Border Force’s Customs hotline on 0800 595 000.