A 24-year-old woman from Northern Ireland, Siobhan McTavey, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison after being caught attempting to smuggle over £1 million worth of cannabis through Heathrow Airport. She was one of three individuals arrested over one weekend, but investigators do not believe they were connected in any way.
McTavey arrived on a flight from Bangkok via Doha on Sunday, 22 September, where Border Force officers discovered 44 kilos of cannabis in her baggage. This amount of drugs had an estimated UK street value of £1.1 million. The National Crime Agency (NCA) had previously issued a warning to travellers coming from Thailand, Canada, and the USA about the consequences of smuggling cannabis into the UK.
Despite these warnings, arrests are still being made, with the amount of cannabis seized in the UK in 2024 already three times higher than in 2023. Organised crime groups are behind this increase, sourcing cannabis from countries where it is legal and recruiting couriers to bring it into the UK for higher profits.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Piers Phillips emphasized that those caught smuggling drugs into the UK will face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. He highlighted the disregard these criminal gangs have for the couriers they employ, focusing only on maximizing profits.
The NCA is working closely with law enforcement partners both domestically and internationally to target high-risk drug routes, seize shipments, and disrupt the criminal organizations involved in drug smuggling. Anyone with information on drug smuggling through UK ports is encouraged to report it anonymously to Border Force’s Customs Hotline.
The case of Siobhan McTavey serves as a reminder of the serious consequences of drug smuggling and the efforts being made to combat this criminal activity. The NCA is committed to disrupting the drug trade and dismantling the business models of criminal gangs involved in drug smuggling.