Four jailed over 13.8m pound cannabis plot through Birmingham Airport

Four members of a drug smuggling gang who tried to bring cannabis worth 13.8 million pounds into the UK through Birmingham Airport have been jailed.

The four were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.

Twenty-two suitcases

Couriers arrived at Birmingham Airport in August 2024 on flights from Thailand that had travelled via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Each courier carried two suitcases, each containing around 20 kilos of vacuum-packed cannabis hidden under a thin layer of clothes. In total, 22 suitcases held 460 kilos of the drug.

Eight of the suitcases contained Apple AirTag trackers, and investigators found they were all linked to the same Apple account, which helped them connect members of the group.

The sentences

Bradley Lloyd, 27, from Wythenshawe in Greater Manchester, was jailed for four years. Lewis Ross, 35, from Bolton, and Nathan Vitorino, 26, from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, were each jailed for two years and eight months. Carsten Kyei, 21, from Newham in east London, was jailed for two and a half years.

Kyei and Vitorino were convicted on 26 May 2026 after a three-week trial. Ross and Lloyd changed their pleas to guilty during the trial. Other members of the group are due to be sentenced on 22 October.

"A high price"

Paul Boniface, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said: "These sentences show that drugs couriers can end up paying a high price for smuggling."

A growing route

Border Force officers and the National Crime Agency have warned about a rise in cannabis being smuggled into the UK in suitcases from Thailand, where the drug was decriminalised in 2022. Couriers are often recruited with offers of free holidays and cash, but they face long prison sentences if caught.

Report drug smuggling

Anyone with information about drug smuggling can report it anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.