By Tony O’Reilly-
Three Americans tried to smuggle cannabis worth more than £1.7 million into the UK in their baggage. Following a ten-hour flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow Airport, Barrington Walters and Mandy Silowka were caught with nearly 60 kilos (9.45st) of marijuana.
Border Force officers found 33 kilos of herbal cannabis in bags belonging to Walters and another 26.5 kilos in suitcases checked in by Silowka when they landed on flights from LAX. Both were stopped after arriving on the same United Airlines flight on January 17, police said.
How the criminals thought they would escape being caught is anybody’s guess, but their stupidity quickly landed them in hot water.
Kiara Lanee Malone was also arrested after also arriving at Heathrow Airport from California with 27.5 kilos of cannabis in her luggage on January 10. Malone had claimed she was travelling to the UK to have cosmetic procedures and said she was given the bags to bring to the UK by someone else, but believed they only had clothes inside.
The convictions follow a string of arrests involving seizures made from flights from the US. Cannabis grown legally in parts of America can attract a premium price in the UK.
At Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday, Silowka, 34, from Princeton, New Jersey, was jailed for a year and Walters, 24, from Los Angeles, was handed a 10-month prison term. Both pleaded guilty during an earlier hearing.