British woman held in Sri Lanka on drug offences

A British woman has been arrested in Sri Lanka after police allegedly found 101lbs (46kg) of the synthetic drug kush in her suitcases.

Custom officers posed for pictures with bags of drugs they accuse Charlotte May Lee, 21, from south London, of attempting to smuggle into the country earlier this month.

The former flight attendant denies knowing there were drugs in her luggage and says she believes they were planted there.

Ms Lee is being held in a prison north of the south Asian country's capital, Colombo, and is contact with her family, her lawyer told the BBC. She could face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty.

A senior officer in the Sri Lanka Customs Narcotics Control Unit said the discovery, at Colombo's Bandaranaike Airport, was the largest kush seizure in the airport's history.

Her legal representative, Sampath Perera, told the BBC his team was visiting her daily in prison in the city of Negombo, to provide support and monitor her wellbeing.

Ms Lee told Mail Online on Wednesday: "I had never seen them [the drugs] before. I didn't expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport.

"I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff."

She told the paper she had been in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, prior to the flight, and had packed in her hotel room before heading out for the night.

"They must have planted it then," she said. "I know who did it."

She did not check her luggage again before heading to Colombo, where she was arrested on 12 May, said Ms Lee.

Ms Lee went to Sri Lanka as her visa was about to expire and she wanted a trip somewhere nearby before heading back to Thailand, she told the newspaper.

She added that she faces harsh conditions in the prison, including sleeping on a concrete floor.

Ms Lee was said to have flown from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport around the same time as another British woman, Bella Culley, 18, from Billingham, County Durham, who is being held in Georgia on suspicion of drug offences.

The BBC understands Ms Culley arrived in Tbilisi on a flight from the United Arab Emirates on 10 May.

Three days later, Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said Ms Culley was accused of "illegally purchasing and storing a particularly large amount of narcotics, illegally purchasing and storing the narcotic drug marijuana, and illegally importing it into Georgia".

A senior customs officer in Sri Lanka told the BBC: "Another passenger who had left Bangkok airport, almost at the same time, was arrested in another country. We arrested this lady [Ms Lee] based on profiling."

He said there had been a massive increase in drugs coming via Bangkok into Sri Lanka.

"This has been a real nuisance."

Ms Culley could face up to 20 years in jail or life imprisonment if found guilty.

She is being detained before trial while Georgian authorities investigate where 26lbs (12kg) of marijuana and 4.4lbs (2kg) of hashish found in a travel bag came from, and whether she was planning on handing it over to someone else.