A 21-year-old former cabin crew member from south London has been arrested in Sri Lanka after allegedly attempting to smuggle £1.5 million worth of cannabis into the country.
Charlotte May Lee, from Coulsdon, was detained on Monday at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo after arriving on a flight from Bangkok. Sri Lankan authorities say they seized 46kg of Kush – a high-grade strain of cannabis – tightly packed in her luggage.
Officials from the Customs Narcotics Control Unit described the haul as the largest amount of Kush ever detected at the airport. Sources close to the investigation estimate the street value of the drugs at around 460 million Sri Lankan rupees (approximately £1.5 million), reportedly destined for “high-end local buyers”.
Miss Lee has been remanded in custody while Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotics Bureau continues its investigation. Local media reports suggest she could face serious legal consequences if charged and convicted.
Originally employed as a flight attendant, Lee’s social media shows her posing in uniform and inside aircraft cockpits. More recently, she had been training to become a lash technician.
Friends said she travelled to Thailand in April to celebrate her 21st birthday with her sister, who lives in Australia, and later told them she "loved Thailand and wanted to work out there". She had recently claimed to have a job on a boat in the region, though hadn’t mentioned any imminent travel plans.
Just hours before her arrest, she posted a TikTok video showing herself on a flight, wearing a face mask, and tagged the location as Bangkok. Her Instagram in recent days featured images of white-sand beaches and nightlife scenes, suggesting she had returned to Southeast Asia.
The British Foreign Office said it is aware of the arrest and is offering consular support.
