Jail for woman caught smuggling £170,000 of cannabis through Edinburgh Airport
Brobbey denied knowing what was contained in her luggage
A woman who attempted to smuggle £170,000 of cannabis stuffed into a suitcase through Edinburgh Airport has been jailed.
Mercedes Brobbey was caught with the large case containing around 17 kilos of the Class B drug when she was stopped by custom officers at the airport in March 2024.
Brobbey, 33, denied knowing what the luggage contained claiming she had been asked by a friend to travel from Thailand to the UK with the case filled with fake clothing brands.
But a jury failed to believe her lies and she was found guilty of charges of importing and supplying quantities of cannabis following a three day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year.
Brobbey, from Redhill, Surrey, returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday where defence lawyer Nimmi Hirani told the court her client had been the victim of domestic violence and is now a single mother.
Ms Hirani asked the court to impose a community order due to Brobbey being the mother of a one-year-old child and she had “exercised extremely poor judgement” by agreeing to the drug deal.
The solicitor added: “In my submission it is clear she did not have any clear or big control over the operation”
Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss told the mother-of-one he accepted she was “not the of the organiser of this enterprise by any means” but he had no option but to impose custody.
The sheriff said: “The difficulty is for you is that you brought £170,000 worth of cannabis into the UK through an airport.
“The supply of drugs is a crime that has multiple victims and has a significant and far reaching consequence on society as a whole.
“The responsibility of the court is to discourage people from becoming involved in that.”
Brobbey was sent to prison for 14 months.
Previously the trial heard Brobbey had been living in Bangkok with her boyfriend and was working with an online accommodation booking company before losing her employment.
She said she was planning a short trip back to the UK to visit her sick mother when a friend in London had introduced her to men who asked her to bring a suitcase back into the country.
She told the jury she agreed to carry the suitcase in return for the men paying for her business class ticket on Qatar Airways costing £2300.
Brobbey said she was given the suitcase by a man outside Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport and after checking in all her luggage she boarded the flight to Edinburgh.
The court heard the drug mule was then stopped by border control officers after landing in Edinburgh and the cannabis was found following a search of her luggage on March 6, 2024.
Brobbey claimed she had been “set up” by her friend in London and that she did not know what was contained in the suitcase.
She said: “I felt I had been lied to by my best friend.
“She knew I was visiting my mum and I felt she had used that.”
Prosecutor Clare Green told the jury Brobbey had been “struggling financially” when she had agreed to bring the drug consignment in to the UK.
Ms Green said the excuse of believing the case contained counterfeit clothing was “untenable and unrealistic” and Brobbey had “repeatedly contradicted herself” while giving her evidence.
Brobbey was found guilty of charges of the fraudulent evasion of the importation of a controlled drug and to being concerned in the supply of cannabis at Edinburgh Airport on March 6, 2024.