Four members of a drugs smuggling gang who were part of a plot to import cannabis worth £13.8 million into the UK via Birmingham Airport have been sentenced

The NCA investigated the group, who were arrested by Border Force officers in 2024 when the class B drugs were found packed into 22 suitcases.

They had arrived into the UK on the same flights from Thailand via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The court heard that the couriers each had two suitcases which were both packed with 20 kilos of cannabis, which amounted 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.

Today four of them were sentenced including Bradley Lloyd to four years imprisonment, Nathan Vitorino and Lewis Ross to two years and eight months imprisonment and Carsten Kyei to two-and-a-half years imprisonment.

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.