Ex-Asda manager caught at Manchester Airport smuggling 30kg of cannabis from Thailand jailed
5 July 2025, 18:38 | Updated: 5 July 2025, 18:48
A former manager at Asda supermarket caught with 30 kilograms of cannabis at Manchester Airport has been jailed for 20 months.
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Louisa De Marco, 53, was allegedly offered £10,000 to smuggle drugs into the UK via Manchester Airport.
But she was stopped in her tracks as customs officers found her with more than 30 kilograms of cannabis on May 8.
Border Force found two suitcases packed with the narcotics, which De Marco denied were hers, Manchester Crown Court heard.
She also denied that she had packed them and told the officers that she thought they contained tobacco, prosecutor Chloe Fordham told the court.
She had touched back down in Manchester following a flight from Thailand via Abu Dhabi.
Read more: Brit 'drug mule' Bella Culley 'branded with hot iron and forced into trafficking', lawyer says
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She later told police that she had met someone who told her she could make money by bringing cannabis into the UK during a previous trip to Thailand.
De Marco was then put in touch with others who paid for her and a friend’s flights to the southeast Asian country, she said in the police interview.
She was also offered £10,000, which she reportedly never received. De Marco refused to tell police the PIN number for her phone.
The judge, Recorder Sarah Griffin, issued her a 20-month prison sentence, telling her she’d spend just half of the term behind bars.
The case was described as serious because De Marco had flown out to Thailand with her "eyes wide open", the judge said.
She added: “You knew exactly what you were involving yourself in.”
De Marco, from Bradford, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.
It comes as a string of Brits remain detained oversees for alleged attempts to smuggle drugs.
Bella Culley, 19, faces life behind bars after being arrested earlier this year for allegedly taking cannabis into Georgia.
