A WOMAN from Cornwall who was convicted for allegedly playing a part in a plot to import cannabis worth £13.8-million into the UK via Birmingham Airport, has been spared jail.

Five other members of a narcotics smuggling gang had already received their sentences, while Tasia Nelson, 22, from Newquay, and Jamal Clarke from London, were the last to face sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on November 9.

The National Crime Agency investigated the group, who were arrested by Border Force officers in August 2024 when the class B drugs were found packed into 22 suitcases.

They had arrived in the UK on the same flights from Thailand, via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The court heard the couriers each had two suitcases which were packed with 20 kilos of cannabis, which amounted to 460 kilos in total. The couriers had to pay an excess charge at Bangkok Airport to put them in the hold as they were so heavy.

Each suitcase had a thin layer of clothing above the vacuum-packed cannabis, and eight contained Apple Air Tag trackers. NCA investigators identified that these were all connected to the same Apple ID account.

Suspicions were raised when Border Force linked the seizures to other travellers using connecting flights into Birmingham, prompting them to fully staff the ‘nothing to declare’ customs green channel. This resulted in the cannabis being found.

One courier was told: ‘my man gonna be on the other side – don’t leave the airport until you see him leave. Even if your bags are there just let them go round on the belt, go toilet etc. etc.”

Nelson, from Newquay, was sentenced on October 30 to 30 months' imprisonment suspended for three years.

Others sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this year were: Gideon Oluwasetemi Olumoyegun, 26, from Dagenham; Ryan Boachie, 32, from Edmonton, North London; Claire McCullough, 36, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester; Jaden Ramen, 23, from Colliers Wood, South London; Paige Crisp, 25, from Broomhall, Worcester.