Tourist overstayed her visa and was caught with huge drugs haul in Edinburgh

A visitor to Scotland who overstayed her visa and was caught trying to traffick nearly £300,000 worth of ecstasy and cannabis in and out of Edinburgh has been jailed.

Jailed: Chen

Xiao Ya Chen, 40, was caught shipping the Class A drug abroad and a search of a flat in the city's Nicolson Street recovered a haul of almost 15 kilos of cannabis.

Police seized iPhones from Chen which contained tick lists and a video of a large amount of cash with a commentary stating: "You see I've just counted. I'll get it to the person to take in back. It's a lot of money."

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Chen - who admitted being concerned in the supply of drugs - had entered the UK from China in February 2018 on a six-month visa.

But in September last year Border Force officers intercepted a parcel bound for export, which it was claimed contained a speaker.

Expanding foam was found inside the speaker containing Ecstasy powder and tablets, some of which bore the Louis Vuitton logo.

The sender was listed as Miss Lilly Chen, of Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, and the intercepted parcel was bound for Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Following a hearing in March, sentence on Chen was deferred and she has now been jailed for three years and four months.

After sentencing procedures, Police Scotland said Chen was caught by a multi-agency investigation by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership, a specialist team of Police Scotland and National Crime Agency, who discovered she had also received packages containing MDMA and cannabis from Belgium in November of last year.

Chen was arrested on November 26, 2019 and a search of her home address found further quantities of herbal cannabis along with £5000. The potential street value of controlled substances seized during the investigation totalled £277,100.

Detective Inspector Tom Gillan of the Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland) said: “This is a positive result for all the partners Border Force, Organised Crime Partner and Police Scotland divisional policing who worked together to achieve this result.

“Bringing offenders to court, recovering illegal substances and disrupting the supply chain and those intent on taking illegal substances into Scotland and our communities is of the highest priority for Police Scotland and today’s sentence is welcomed.”

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