A 24-year-old mother has been convicted for her role in a gang that smuggled £13.8m worth of cannabis into the UK in 22 suitcases. Paige Crisp was one of 11 Britons stopped by border force officers with a collective 460kg of drugs found in their luggage.
Crisp, who has a four-year-old daughter, was convicted on 19 Aug of attempting to carry, remove, deposit, harbour, keep, conceal and deal with Class B drugs with intent to evade prohibition on importing. She was part of the final three members of the gang to be convicted at Birmingham Crown Court.
Thailand to Birmingham smuggling route
The gang attempted to smuggle cannabis from Thailand, travelling via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris before being arrested at Birmingham Airport on 9 Aug 2024. Each member was detained with two large suitcases holding 20kg of cannabis inside. The bags were so heavy that an excess charge was paid at Bangkok Airport to put them in the hold.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said suspicions were raised when four passengers with two large suitcases each travelled from Birmingham to Charles de Gaulle that day. The luggage had a thin layer of clothing on top of vacuum-packed cannabis, and eight contained Apple AirTag trackers all connected to the same Apple ID. A total of 97.95 kilos of cannabis was seized from Crisp.
Eleven gang members convicted
Crisp, from Malvern, Worcestershire, appeared alongside Tasia Nelson, 22, of Newquay, Cornwall, and Jaden Ramen, 23, of Merton, London. The mother is set to be sentenced on 22 Oct, alongside Nelson and Ramen.
Carsten Kyei, 21, from Plaistow, London, and Nathan Vitorino, 26, of Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, were both found guilty during a three-week trial on 26 May. Bradley Lloyd, 27, of Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, and Lewis Ross, 35, of Bolton, Lancashire, changed their plea to guilty during the same trial.
Claire McCullough, 36, of Wythenshawe; Ryan Boachie, 32, of Edmonton, London; Gideon Oluwasetemi Olumoyegun, 26, of Dagenham, London; and Jamal Clarke, 22, of Mile End, London, all pleaded guilty at a previous hearing. Kyei, Vitorino, Boachie, Olumoyegun, Ross, Lloyd and McCullough are set to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 3 Sep. Clarke will feature at a pre-trial review on the same date after facing further offences for failing to surrender to police.
NCA and Border Force response
Paul Boniface, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “A huge amount of planning went into this sophisticated attempt to bring hundreds of kilos of cannabis into the UK. The detailed coordinated of flights and luggage demonstrates the lengths criminals will go to in order to hide their offending. With thanks to Border Force, we were able to confiscate these drugs and stop criminals from benefitting financially from the damage they cause. Anyone who is approached to smuggle drugs into the UK should take this as a sign; you will not succeed, and if you try, you will face justice.”
Adam Chatfield, Head of Border Force Midlands Command, said: “These convictions should be a stark warning to anyone considering bringing cannabis into the UK. The young people involved now face a serious crime on their records, damaging their job prospects and life chances. More than ever, we are working closely with law enforcement partners in the UK and overseas to combat drug smuggling, keep our communities safe and our borders secure.”
Victoria Norman from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Working with investigators, prosecutors pieced together a picture of a highly co-ordinated effort to smuggle industrial quantities of drugs into the country. Ultimately, this strong evidence led to six of the group pleading guilty, with the remainder convicted following a trial. The CPS is committed to working with the NCA to tackle organised crime and ensure that those involved with drug smuggling are brought to justice.”
