A woman has been jailed after trying to smuggle £800,000 worth of crack cocaine hidden inside a Parmesan cheese wheel through Heathrow Airport.
US national Jamie Choi, 23, was stopped by UK Border Force officers at Heathrow after she arrived on a flight from Brazil on May 25.
Officers asked the California resident about the 8kg-cheese wheel she was travelling with.
Choi told the officers that a friend had suggested she buy the Parmesan from Lima, Peru, for them to try.
But when officers examined the cheese they found it contained crack cocaine. A forensic analysis later found that the drug was 94% pure.
The National Crime Agency identified that Choi had travelled from Los Angeles to Lima on May 20.
The next day she had flown to Asuncion, Paraguay, staying there until May 24 when she flew to Heathrow Airport after changing at Sau Paulo, Brazil.
A notebook was found in Choi’s handbag, which contained a single handwritten memo dated May 21 – the day she left Lima.
It read: “I dropped out of UCSB [University of California Santa Barbara] on Monday.
“Currently I am in Paraguay in South America solo travelling for the first time. It’s been amazing so far.”
Choi, who was charged with importing Class A drugs, pleaded guilty to the offence at Isleworth Crown Court on 6 August 2025.
She was jailed for five years and three months on Tuesday.
NCA senior investigating officer, Barry Vinall, said: “We’ve seen people trying to smuggle cocaine into the UK hidden inside all manner of innocuous-looking items, but Border Force and the National Crime Agency are well-practised in finding drugs, whatever the disguise.
“Smuggling drugs into the UK is simply not a risk worth taking – it has consequences, as seen in this case.”
