"she’s looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail."
A 21-year-old former air stewardess has been arrested in Sri Lanka after being accused of smuggling £1.15 million worth of cannabis into the country.
Charlotte May Lee, from Coulsdon, South London, was detained at Bandaranaike International Airport, near Colombo, on May 12. She had flown in on a SriLankan Airlines flight from Bangkok, Thailand.
Officials say 46kg of Kush – a high-potency strain of cannabis – was found packed in vacuum-sealed bags inside two large suitcases.
Customs authorities described the seizure as the biggest haul of Kush ever made at the airport.
It is reported that the drugs were likely destined for “high-end local buyers.”
Lee is being held in custody while investigations continue. Sri Lankan police released images of officers posing with the seized bags.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said:
“We are supporting a British woman who has been arrested in Sri Lanka and are in contact with her family and the local authorities.”
Lee previously worked for TUI Group as cabin crew under a summer contract. She had been training as a lash technician and working part-time as a beautician, according to friends.
One friend said: “She’s been told if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she’s looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail.
“British Embassy staff warned her she’s going nowhere soon.”
Another said they had received a video message on Snapchat in which Lee appeared to film herself from inside a detention centre, reassuring them that she was okay.
The friend added: “She had been travelling in Thailand in April for her 21st birthday.
“She briefly came back to the UK but left again without telling anyone.”
Lee is said to have mentioned a “job on a boat” in Thailand about a month ago, though she did not say when she would be returning.
“She was a nice girl,” said one woman close to Lee, who admitted she was in “total shock.”
Another friend said: “There were no red flags or anything.”
A video posted on Lee’s TikTok account on the day of her arrest showed her flying over a tropical island. The video was tagged with a Bangkok location.
Lee’s Instagram account also features pictures of her in TUI uniform standing next to an aircraft.
Now in a Sri Lankan jail, Lee is being held in a single room with 20 other women.
A family friend said: “We’re frantically worried. She was arrested, then seemingly abandoned and is rotting in a jail cell. She’s very scared.”
Relatives also said she had made vague comments about meeting a man in Thailand, following a difficult break-up.
Kush is believed to be up to 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl and is often cut with toxic chemicals. It has been linked to thousands of deaths in Africa.
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