Cannabis Smuggler Caught During Pineapple Tins Run

A cannabis smuggler, who tried to sneak £76,000 worth of the drug through Gatwick Airport in tins of pineapple, has been jailed for twelve months.

Chanelle Walters,30, pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to importing 27.6 kilos of cannabis from Jamaica on December 3, last year.

Prosecutor Mr. Keith Hadrill told the court Walters was stopped by UK Border Agency officers as she tried to catch a connecting flight to Manchester in a mobility carrier.

The traveller's two suitcases were checked and within the tins of pineapple and other assorted tinned foods the cannabis was found.

“She said she had a free holiday and had been provided with the two suitcases,” added Mr. Hadrill, confirming Walters' travelling companion was cleared of drug smuggling.

“She said she has a sugar-daddy that treats her to all sorts of gifts.

“It was thought baggage bound for Manchester would not come under such close inspection at Gatwick and the labels on them showed an address that did not exist.”

Lupus-sufferer Walters' lawyer Mr. George Hepburn said: “She did not have any knowledge of the operation until she was in Jamaica, but she admitted to cannabis and crack cocaine use since she was a teenager.

“She doesn't name the man because he is a family man with two children and she now says, looking back, that she thinks the sugar daddy set them up.

“The day before leaving two men came up to her room and said she had to take a package back to Manchester.

“One of them had a gun and told her if she did not do it she would end up in a bush.

“She knew it wa drugs and was relieved it was not cocaine.”

Recorder Andrew McCooey, sentencing Walters to twelve months imprisonment, told her: “Had you not been under the influence of these sinister people in Jamaica you would not be here today.

“You must learn your lesson now and have nothing to do with drugs.”

Walters, who has been in custody since her arrest, qualified for immediate release.