Charlotte May Lee, 22, moved from Sri Lanka hellhole prison after riots kill 30

UK woman Charlotte May Lee, 22, accused of smuggling £1.2m of synthetic cannabis into Sri Lanka, has been moved from Welikada Prison after deadly riots killed 30. She denies the charges.

UK woman moved from notorious Sri Lanka prison after riot deaths

Charlotte May Lee, a 22-year-old British woman accused of attempting to smuggle £1.2 million worth of synthetic cannabis into Sri Lanka, has been relocated from Welikada Prison following deadly riots that left 30 guards and inmates dead, thaiexaminer.com reports.

Lee, a former TUI air stewardess from Coulsdon, Surrey, has been held at the facility — widely regarded as Sri Lanka's most notorious women's prison — for 18 months without formal charge. She has not yet been tried, but if convicted she faces between 20 and 25 years behind bars under Sri Lanka's stringent narcotics laws.

She was arrested on 12 May at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo after arriving on a flight from Bangkok. Customs officers alleged she was carrying a record haul of Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid described by authorities as approximately 25 times stronger than fentanyl. The drugs were reportedly concealed inside vacuum-sealed plastic bags packed into her suitcase.

A judge ordered Lee to remain at Welikada while prosecutors completed their investigation. At the time of her most recent court appearance, she was banned from using a phone or making contact with anyone outside the prison.

"She was crying a lot," a prison source told thaiexaminer.com. "The penny has finally dropped. She knows she's in deep trouble." The same source added: "This prison is not fit for a rat. But she's been told to get used to it."

Welikada's women's wing was built to house 150 inmates but currently holds more than 650. Lee was reportedly forced to sleep in a corridor on bare concrete, without a mattress, pillow or blanket. "The conditions are horrific," one prison staffer said. "There's nothing but rice and curry to eat." A source close to Lee said she was struggling to eat and finding it difficult to maintain basic hygiene. Inmates wash using a bucket of cold water; the only shared recreation is a broken television.

Lee denies any knowledge of the drugs. "I had already packed my suitcase the night before because I had an early flight," she said. "After that, I left it in the hotel room when I went out. I didn't open it again the next morning. I thought it was just my clothes." She added: "I didn't expect it at all when they pulled me over. I was shocked. But I know who did it."

Her case bears close resemblance to that of Bella May Culley, an 18-year-old British woman arrested in Georgia within 24 hours of Lee's detention. Authorities in Sri Lanka noted that the vacuum-sealed packaging used to conceal the drugs in Lee's suitcase was almost identical to that found in the Culley case. Police believe both women may have been exploited by men they had met during their travels in Southeast Asia.

Friends of Lee told thaiexaminer.com she had become infatuated with a British man she met in Thailand. "She wouldn't stop talking about him," one friend said. "She said she was madly in love." The man was reportedly supposed to meet her in Colombo. "He was meant to meet her in Colombo, but of course, she never got there. She got arrested instead." Friends expressed concern that the man had allegedly made contact with Lee even after her arrest. "It feels like she's under his spell," the friend said. "Who is this guy? Police should be asking that too."

Sri Lankan customs officials said the drugs appeared to have been prepared using industrial sealing equipment, suggesting the involvement of a professional smuggling operation. Police believe Lee's arrest forms part of a broader trafficking chain, with Kush described as flooding new markets across Asia and Africa. The drug was first identified in Sierra Leone and Nigeria in 2022 and has since spread rapidly. It is cheap to produce and highly addictive; users have been reported to suffer seizures, hallucinations and collapse after use.

Thai police have described a pattern in which young Western travellers are recruited into drug networks, often via online contact or social circles. Lieutenant Colonel Arun Musikim of Thailand's Surat Thani Provincial Police said: "Cannabis is now legal in Thailand. The climate is perfect for growing it, especially on the southern islands. As a result, gangs are using backpackers and unemployed Brits to carry it abroad. They're promised free holidays, hotels, even pocket money — all they have to do is carry a bag. But most don't even know who they're really working for. It's a growing trend. We've seen many arrests this year."

Lee had left her job as an air stewardess to travel Southeast Asia. She had booked budget accommodation and, according to investigators, met contacts in Bangkok before boarding her flight to Colombo. On 21 May, Thailand's Minister of Public Health, Somsak Thepsuthin, announced an urgent crackdown on cannabis smuggling out of the country — a move thaiexaminer.com described as widely seen as a direct response to the recent arrests of Lee and Culley.

Lee maintains she was tricked into acting as a courier and has stated she intends to prove her innocence.

Source: The Sun