British woman arrested after £172,000 worth of cannabis is found inside her suitcase

A smuggler on a British Airways flight was found to be trying to import 18kg of cannabis (Picture: NACOC)

A British passenger has been accused of allegedly attempting to smuggle 18kg of cannabis into the UK.

Browne-Frater Chyna Jada, 23, was stopped while boarding her British Airways flight from Accra, Ghana to London Gatwick.

Police found 32 slabs of drugs inside her bags when they were searched at the city’s Kotoka International Airport.

The haul was later confirmed to be a staggering 17.72kg of cannabis.

The Ghanaian Narcotics Control Commission said the haul was worth $232,960 (£172,000).

Jada appeared at Accra Circuit Court on Saturday where she has been remanded in custody. No plea was entered, according to local media.

Another British national was among three other passengers arrested on the same day at the same airport for drug smuggling offences.

Owusu Williams Christian arrived in Accra on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

His two suitcases were found to contain 92 slabs of substances suspected to be narcotic drugs.

In total, officers discovered 53.6kg of cannabis in his bags.

Christian, 19 and two other suspects were detained at the airport pending further investigation.

The young woman’s suitcase was found to be stuffed with 32 slabs of cannabis weighing 17.6kg (Picture: Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC)) The British passenger was about to board a British Airways flight to Gatwick when her bags were searched and found to be containing the Class B drug (Picture: NACOC) Another three smugglers were arrested last Sunday at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport (Picture: NACOC)

The NACOC said it remained  ‘resolute and committed to the fight against drug trafficking and usage in the country’.

Controlled drug smuggling is a constant challenge at the world’s largest airports.

Nearly 27,000kg of cannabis was seized from smugglers arriving at UK airports last year – a fivefold increase from 2023, according to the National Crime Agency .

Almost half of the drugs were found with passengers flying into Heathrow, where 430 suspects were arrested carrying 14,317kg of the Class B drug.

A majority of smugglers stopped were British citizens with Thailand the most common point of origin for traffickers.

Under a new pilot scheme by the UK Border Force, drug mules will no longer be arrested in the UK, but sent back home where they are dealt with by authorities.

The three-month trial launched at Heathrow on Monday and will help cut down the number of foreign criminals who end up in UK prisons.

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