Four Brits Arrested At Mauritius Airport Over ‘Bid To Smuggle In £4,000,000 Of Cannabis’

It’s a day ending with ‘y’, which means a new bunch of Brits have been busted attempting to smuggle drugs into a country that you definitely don’t want to be caught smuggling drugs into.

This time, we’ve got four British nationals who were among nine people arrested at Mauritius’ main airport on suspicion of attempting to smuggle £4,000,000 (!) worth of cannabis onto the island.

The group includes 18-year-old Chloe Nancy Parker, whose luggage allegedly contained 46 bags of cannabis totaling 44.95kg. Overall, eight of the group were found with a total of 212kg of cannabis in their bags.

Fellow Brits Shania Mabel Rosalind Wood, 25, and Alethea Jade Demitre, 33, allegedly each had 33.1kg stuffed into multiple suitcases.

Another Brit, Daniel Jonathan Pearson, did not have drugs on him but is suspected of leading the group into the country. Bit weird that he chose not to carry any of the haul himself; maybe he thought he could get away with it if it all went t1ts up? This is Pearson:

Turns out that was actually part of Pearson’s ill-fated master plan: he arrived first at a customs checkpoint and attempted to distract officials by becoming ‘violent and hostile’, which he thought would allow the others behind him, who were carrying the drugs, to pass without suspicion.

It didn’t quite work out that way, especially as Mauritius’ police force were expecting some kind of drug smuggling attempt thanks to ‘early surveillance’.

Indeed, according to Mauritian news outlet Defi Info, authorities had gathered specific intelligence on an international drug trafficking network’.

And so, the eight smugglers were searched simultaneously as Pearson was arrested. Aside from the aforementioned Brits, the other suspects, including Dominican and Portuguese nationals, are Hansel Gomez, Esequiel Perez, Ildo Valera De Brito, Luis Manuel Herrera Martinez and Soraia Cristina Da Silva Cruz. What a crew!

All nine have been charged with ‘drug dealing with aggravating circumstances’ and remain in custody.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting a number of British nationals who have been detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities.

I guess all that’s left to do now is for the entire crew to deny knowledge of what was in their bags, or claim that they were paid to carry Angel Delight. Good luck to them – they’re going to need it!