Gang members jailed over plot to import cannabis worth £13.8m into UK
The court heard that the couriers each had two suitcases, which were both packed with 20 kilos of cannabis, amounting to 460 kilos in total.
Four members of a drug smuggling gang who were part of a plot to import cannabis worth £13.8 million into the UK have been jailed.
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The group came under investigation after they were arrested in August 2024 when class B drugs were found packed into 22 suitcases.
They had arrived in the UK on the same flights from Thailand via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Carsten Kyei, 21, from Newham, Bradley Lloyd, 27, from Wythenshawe, Lewis Ross, 35, from Bolton, and Nathan Vitorino, 26, from Welwyn Garden City, were all sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.
The court heard that the couriers each had two suitcases, which were both packed with 20 kilos of cannabis, amounting to 460 kilos in total.
The couriers had to pay an excess charge at Bangkok Airport to put them in the hold as they were so heavy.
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Each suitcase had a thin layer of clothing above the vacuum-packed cannabis, and eight contained Apple AirTag trackers. National Crime Agency investigators found they were linked to the same Apple ID account.
Suspicions were raised when Border Force linked the seizures to other travellers using connecting flights into Birmingham, prompting them to fully staff the ‘nothing to declare’ customs green channel. This resulted in the cannabis being found.
One courier was told: ‘my man gonna be on the other side – don’t leave the airport until you see him leave. Even if your bags are there just let them go round on the belt, go toilet etc. etc.”
Kyei and Vitorino were convicted on May 26, 2026, following a three-week trial, while Ross and Lloyd changed their pleas to guilty during that trial.
Lloyd was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, Vitorino and Ross to two years and eight months' imprisonment and Kyei to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment.
NCA senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said: “These sentences show that drugs couriers can end up paying a high price for smuggling cannabis to the UK.
“It is simply not worth the effort, something that social media influencers promoting this lifestyle frequently overlook.
“With the help of Border Force, we were able to intercept these drugs, deprive the criminal network behind the importation of considerable profits and protect the public from the damaging effects of cannabis.”