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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Another drug mule arrest ‘based on profiling?’

52 replies

GetMeOutOfHere20 · 23/05/2025 16:06

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy6gq0l5dgo

AIBU to think the profiles of drugs mules has changed! What are these young women playing at messing up their lives?

Charlotte May Lee pictured in Bangkok

British woman accused of smuggling drugs into Sri Lanka in suitcase

Charlotte May Lee, 21, from south London, denies knowing drugs were in her suitcase.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy6gq0l5dgo

OP posts:
MiloMinderbinder925 · 23/05/2025 16:12

They're idiots. It's well known that in some of these countries you can get the death sentence for drug smuggling.

They have probably been talked into it by some lothario with the promise of easy cash.

fruitandvegoverload · 23/05/2025 16:16

The drug gangs must be picking potential mules based on their looks and middle names, as all the recent ones arrested have been called May!

CalicoPusscat · 23/05/2025 16:24

I did think that customs would be more wary of young women with lip tweaks etc nowadays than before.

Zanatdy · 23/05/2025 16:27

My son messaged earlier to say he went to school with her. Also 2 high profile murders from his year group too.

CancelTheSkip · 23/05/2025 17:15

More intrigued to see a photo of what she actually looks like.

Bet she doesn't turn up in court looking like that.

EmeraldRoulette · 23/05/2025 17:19

Weird phrasing

It says they arrested her based on profiling

But surely they arrested her based on what they found in her luggage?

unless they mean they chose to search her luggage based on profiling. As I'm always on my own travelling, I was warned years ago that that makes me more likely to have my stuff searched.

Curlybook · 23/05/2025 17:22

What are they profiling?

I think young women have always been used this way? There were two Irish (?) women arrested fornin c. 2013 and when I went to Magaluf in 1990, I was asked by the men in the next room to carry a bag through customs....

Loadsapandas · 23/05/2025 17:24

What was the previous profile of drug mules?

Toottooot · 23/05/2025 17:27

Have none of these quines learnt from the Peru 2?

babasaclover · 23/05/2025 17:31

Can’t believe she says she didn’t know it was in her luggage - it was 46KG worth of drugs - how did she even lift the cases!!!

Mouche85 · 23/05/2025 17:45

fruitandvegoverload · 23/05/2025 16:16

The drug gangs must be picking potential mules based on their looks and middle names, as all the recent ones arrested have been called May!

I'm sure you could a sociological study around lifestyle of parents who chose May as a middle name when it was trendy, the importance of social media performing for their daughter and their desire for quick & easy money.

Mouche85 · 23/05/2025 17:47

babasaclover · 23/05/2025 17:31

Can’t believe she says she didn’t know it was in her luggage - it was 46KG worth of drugs - how did she even lift the cases!!!

What's the plan here? Is it a gambling on the 46kg? I mean it must be worth some money and they would risk to loose it? Or the suitcase with 47kg is a red-herring?

IwantmyReptv · 23/05/2025 17:48

They need to show Bangkok Hilton to teens in year 11.

wizzywig · 23/05/2025 17:51

Cue Daily Mail sad face with obligatory bun on top of head. Poor girl. So stupid and now paying the price.

Tomatotater · 23/05/2025 17:55

babasaclover · 23/05/2025 17:31

Can’t believe she says she didn’t know it was in her luggage - it was 46KG worth of drugs - how did she even lift the cases!!!

Wasnt it in Kinder eggs? What did she think was in there? Obvs shes lying and cant think of anything else to say but really? What a stupid thing to do.

SooTiired · 23/05/2025 18:06

When I was about 19, I went back packing on my own. Got my bags taken aside and thoroughly searched a couple of times. I think a single young woman travelling to certain countries on her own is considered suspicious, and with the recent arrests you can see why! (even though I definitely would never have carried anything I shouldn't, it was still really scary having your bags all searched etc..!! kept thinking 'what if someone planted something!!? Can't imagine how these girls must have felt knowing they actually were carrying drugs! Stupid girls)

Pompompurin1 · 23/05/2025 18:09

I was once travelling alone to
visit my parents in Barbados and was stopped at the airport as a young woman travelling alone and interrogated about where I was going to stay, with whom etc. When I was able to explain and provide evidence that I was visiting my parents he explained that he stopped me as young women travelling alone to these destinations is unusual and they were looking for a drug mule …. Probably that’s what the “profiling” is.

smallglassbottle · 23/05/2025 18:17

They are stupid. They do all seem to fit a certain profile in that they're into materialism, fake looks, Instagram etc. They seem quite dim as well, which is why they're easy targets. They can't think things through with any degree of seriousness. The devotion to acquiring money for face procedures, clothing, handbags and an easy sunshine destination holiday is always apparent. It's very sad really. This is what happens when you live in a fantasy world.

maggiecate · 23/05/2025 18:23

Young woman, travelling alone, from a known source of drugs, with a very heavy suitcase. She ticks a lot of boxes. It’s possible that they’re saying profiling but they actually had prior intelligence. There’s been a huge increase in the number of arrests of British nationals in Thailand or trying to bring cannabis into the UK since last year. There will be a lot of inter-agency cooperation going on. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/international-crackdown-on-cannabis-smuggling

International crackdown on cannabis smuggling

UK-Thai cooperation results in 90% reduction in cannabis arriving in the post. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/international-crackdown-on-cannabis-smuggling

Ablondiebutagoody · 23/05/2025 18:24

Curlybook · 23/05/2025 17:22

What are they profiling?

I think young women have always been used this way? There were two Irish (?) women arrested fornin c. 2013 and when I went to Magaluf in 1990, I was asked by the men in the next room to carry a bag through customs....

They are profiling young people coming from Thailand. Since cannabis was legalised there, smuggling it out of the country has become very popular. I was reading some stats about UK airports. If I remember rightly, they were seizing about 4 tonnes per year coming in from Thailand until a couple of years ago. Its now 27 tonnes per year.

babasaclover · 23/05/2025 18:25

Tomatotater · 23/05/2025 17:55

Wasnt it in Kinder eggs? What did she think was in there? Obvs shes lying and cant think of anything else to say but really? What a stupid thing to do.

not sure. The article I read said she packed her clothes into suitcase and left in her hotel room and went out for the night. Didn’t check her case in morning as already packed. So so far fetched, I lift 30kg in gym and I’m strong but it’s tough. No way could she expect her suitcase of clothes to weigh so much. Idiot

thestaffy · 23/05/2025 18:33

There was a backpacker hostel near when I lived in Bangkok. Owner was a decent retired British UN official, who on occasion moved heaven and earth to help guests who had run into problems. (Passport stolen, bank cards stolen, trip to hospital etc.) But the sheer number of scams some tried to pull was ridiculous. Leaving without paying, (you gave him your passport number at check-in you idiot), and then surprised you are on a wanted list when you try to leave the country. Reporting you "lost" your camera to the police, implying it was his staff (he used to get the police to search their mates bag and....there it was all the time)
Drug misuse is endemic, and is a massive problem for all the SE Asian countries. I have worked inside SE Asian prisons, and you really do not want to go there. Sadly she won't be the last. Singapore still executes drug smugglers, even western ones. Yet they still try it.
They will be harsh on her because she was smuggling 'Kush' which is a very new, cheap, synthetic drug, which will soon IMHO overwhelm these societies, and become the drug of choice, as it has in West Africa.

cakeorwine · 23/05/2025 18:41

46KG?

I mean - don't you have to weigh them on the scales at check in?

GarlicPile · 23/05/2025 18:45

cakeorwine · 23/05/2025 18:41

46KG?

I mean - don't you have to weigh them on the scales at check in?

"I never noticed nuffink, officer."

Another drug mule arrest ‘based on profiling?’
GarlicPile · 23/05/2025 19:00

Pals told The Sun that Charlotte was besotted with a man named Rocko. They think this could help her defence if she pleads not guilty in the next court hearing. An unknown British man reportedly was waiting for Charlotte when she arrived in Sri Lanka.

Charlotte said: "I've not eaten in two days because the food is just too spicy for me." She also complained that she's only allowed two or three hours out in the sun. I'm not sure keeping up her tan should be her priority right now ...!

Another girl, Bella Culley, who was arrested in Georgia after leaving Bangkok with a case full of drugs, was also besotted with a mystery man. She posted photos of herself with wads of cash on SM, with excited plans for a worldwide crime spree with this guy "like Bonnie and Clyde".

Bella's middle name is May.