‘Can’t Wait To Enjoy Our Summer’ – Drug-Smuggling Best Friends Celebrate After Avoiding Jail Time

Two BFFs who were caught with a combined 35KG of cannabis in their luggage at Birmingham International Airport following a ‘shopping trip’ to New York have been celebrating their freedom after both getting away with suspended jail sentences.

In a country where a man was recently jailed for two years for selling hacked firesticks, Sophie Bannister and Levi-April Whalley, both 30, avoided jail last week after smuggling £160,000 worth of cannabis from New York to Birmingham.

This is Levi:

And her pal Sophie:

Text messages between the girls further revealed they’d been working as drug mules to import cannabis into the UK.

Since avoiding jail sentences, the girls have put up a number of posts on social media writing about the “most challenging 15 months of our lives”, how they’re now “famous”, and how their experience in court “proves how strong we really are”.

Initially both women told officials they had packed their suitcases themselves and were aware that it was illegal to bring drugs into the UK, but when their bags when checked, officers found 34 sealed packages of cannabis in Sophie’s case and a further 39 packages in Levi’s luggage.

The girls then acted completely dumbfounded and claimed they thought the packages contained watches.

In the end, Sophie was given 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months with 30 days of rehabilitation activities and 200 hours of unpaid work, and Levi was given a 16-month sentence suspended for 18 months, with 10 days rehabilitation and 80 hours of unpaid work. As long as they behave themselves for the duration and complete the unpaid work and rehab requirements, they’ll have got away scot-free.

Although, Levi has been suspended from the practice where she worked as a nurse, so there is that.

Look, fair play to the girls. I’d be pretty buzzing too if I had been caught smuggling of 35KG of cannabis internationally and got away with a slap on the wrist. It just begs the question whether two men of a similar age and background would have received the same treatment, or whether they’d be behind bars right now with their lives essentially ruined. What makes these two ladies so special that the justice system lets them get away with it?

It’s worth noting that in the 15 months that it took the courts to come to a decision over this, Sophie got pregnant and had a baby. Which is actually a stroke of genius if you consider that this may have had an influence in the leniency of their sentences. Take note, future drug smugglers.