An Edinburgh woman has been jailed for illegally-smuggling over a quarter of a million pounds worth of drugs in and out of the country.
Today (December 23), Xiao Ya Chen, 40, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh after being convicted earlier in the year.
In March, Xiao Ya Chen plead guilty to being concerned in the supply of controlled substances, and was was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.
A multi-agency investigation by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership, a specialist team of Police Scotland and NCA officers intercepted a package in September 2019 containing MDMA, sent by Chen, on its way to Argentina.
Following further enquiries it was established that she had also received packages containing MDMA and cannabis from Belgium in November of last year.
Chen was arrested on Tuesday, 26 November, 2019 and a search of her home address in Edinburgh found further quantities of herbal cannabis along with £5000. The potential street value of controlled substances seized during the investigation totalled £277,100.
Detective Inspector Tom Gillan of the Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland) said: “This is a positive result for all the partners Border Force, Organised Crime Partner and Police Scotland divisional policing who worked together to achieve this result.
“Bringing offenders to court, recovering illegal substances and disrupting the supply chain and those intent on taking illegal substances into Scotland and our communities is of the highest priority for Police Scotland and today’s sentence is welcomed.”
