Former TUI air stewardess faces 25 years in jail after 'trying to smuggle £1.2m drugs'

An ex flight attendant faces decades “rotting behind bars” after allegedly attempting to with a value of £1.2million.

Charlotte May Lee, 21, was arrested by police after stepping off a flight to from . Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic drug known as kush, a highly addictive mix of a number of drugs, chemicals and even human bones. The former Tui flight attendant departed Surrey for Thailand a fortnight ago, having made vague comments to friends about meeting a man in the Far East country.

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A family friend told the : “We’re frantically worried. She was arrested then seemingly abandoned and is rotting in a jail cell. She’s very scared.”

Another friend added: “She’s been told if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she’s looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail.

“British Embassy staff warned her she’s going nowhere soon.”

Kush is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl and often cut with toxic chemicals. It first appeared in Sierra Leone around four years ago and there are no official figures on the exact number of deaths.

The drug also has a terrible effect on user's mental health with the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital saying between 2020 and 2023, admissions linked to kush surged by almost 4,000 per cent to reach 1,865. Around 63 per cent of the current patients were admitted with kush-related problems.

A National Task Force on Drugs and Substance Abuse has been set up to combat the growing crisis. He said that centres will be set up, "adequately staffed by trained professionals to offer care and support to people with drug addiction".

Her case is similar to Brit Bella Culley, 18, who was arrested last week in Georgia with £200,000 of cannabis. Her grandad previously revealed Bella was meeting a man she "used to go out with" during her dream holiday in Southeast Asia.

William Culley, 80, said: "She went to the Philippines to see somebody, a lad there, who she used to go out with a couple of years ago, who was working out there.

"She said, “I’m going on my own, but I’m meeting Ross out there.” Or Russ, I’m not sure what his name is. He was working out there for his father’s company or something – but now I wonder if what she told me was true."

He added: "Last night they were told they could see her in the morning. They said they’d ring me straight after they had seen her, but I haven’t had a call. They must still be waiting."