British Bella May Culley 18, missing from Thailand, arrested in Georgia, May 2025

[HongKongPhooey]

This is the photo of the £ 1.5 million stash of marijuana and products that was discovered in the two large suitcases of CML in Colombo, Sri Lanka

46 kg , 101 pounds of marijuana

I wonder how she even got those on the plane without an overweight baggage charge. I doubt they would need sniffer dogs to detect that. The suitcases must have reeked of it.

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Holy moly

 

[Skigh]

This is the photo of the £ 1.5 million stash of marijuana and products that was discovered in the two large suitcases of CML in Colombo, Sri Lanka

46 kg , 101 pounds of marijuana

I wonder how she even got those on the plane without an overweight baggage charge. I doubt they would need sniffer dogs to detect that. The suitcases must have reeked of it.

View attachment 586910

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There is no way that was not know about at the airport she departed from.

 

[CityKid]

Bella Culley's father says he will be in Georgia for as long it takes

Niel Culley, 49, has still not been able to visit the 18-year-old despite jetting out to the Black Sea nation as soon as news broke of her arrest last Tuesday night.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The father of drug arrest teenager Bella Culley has vowed to stay in Georgia for 'as long as it takes' - as organised crime experts fear British backpackers are being targeted by the Thai cartel.

Niel Culley, 49, has still not been able to visit the 18-year-old despite jetting out to the Black Sea nation as soon as news broke of her arrest last Tuesday night.

He is facing every parent's worst nightmare as he battles to get information on how Bella allegedly came to be in possession of 14kg of cannabis and hash.


Former Georgian police general Jemal Janashia, one of the country’s foremost drug crime experts, told the Mail: 'The fact that two young British women have taken off with large quantities of drugs from the same airport will interest investigators.

'They will be concerned about the possibility of a link and that Thai gangs may be attempting to recruit vulnerable British travellers.'

Both girls departed from the Thai capital during the Royal Ploughing Ceremony weekend. It is one of the busiest festivals of the year when airports are overloaded with tourists - a prime opportunity for gangs to try to push through mules.

The two arrests also follow a huge crackdown on smugglers sending cannabis to the UK by post.

A joint operation by both countries has seen a 90 per cent in reduction in the drug being mailed to Britain since last year.

It suggests Thai gangs may now be reverting to using drug mules to ship their products instead - and targeting British backpackers

BBM. Yes, I understand that people are recruited as mules. Yes, I have sympathy for an impoverished local resident who does this as a last resort to feed their family (although IMO this doesn't absolve them of the crime). But I have no sympathy for a tourist from a developed nation, who can afford international travel, who agrees to carry a suitcase of drugs from a developing nation. MOO but as a woman, I really hate this misogynistic infantilization of women from wealthy countries who choose to traffic drugs.

 

[Skigh]

BBM. Yes, I understand that people are recruited as mules. Yes, I have sympathy for an impoverished local resident who does this as a last resort to feed their family (although IMO this doesn't absolve them of the crime). But I have no sympathy for a tourist from a developed nation, who can afford international travel, who agrees to carry a suitcase of drugs from a developing nation. MOO but as a woman, I really hate this misogynistic infantilization of women from wealthy countries who choose to traffic drugs.

I have no sympathy for anyone smuggling drugs whoever they are.

 

[Herat]

There is no way that was not know about at the airport she departed from.

The former Georgian Police General made the coment that the specific day the flights with both "presumed" drug smugglers left was a very busy holiday in Thailand:

As reported by DM:

"Both girls departed from the Thai capital during the Royal Ploughing Ceremony weekend. It is one of the busiest festivals of the year when airports are overloaded with tourists - a prime opportunity for gangs to try to push through mules."

I watch a lot of To Catch a Smuggler and all the baggage has to be xrayed for prohibited goods, clearly such as weapons, potential explosives, animals, reptiles, birds, etc.

I do note that in numerous cases in the countries on the show, the arrival airport receivces notice that there is someone arriving with luggage with "abnormalities" in it. So perhaps, the Thai airport security agents clear the baggage of dangerous items for the flight but send notice to the arrival city of the baggage and even perhaps the images. I don't think they regularly use the organic material scanner for all the departing passengers.

Kind of like the episode where the German man had 4 big suitcases with 45kg of khat from Kenya, I think. The xray images were unmistakable, yet he was allowed on the flight. When he landed in Madrid, it was evident on the organic scanner. Technically khat is not a drug in Spain, so he eludes arrest, but he was charged with illegal importation of prohibited plants and the khat was seized and destroyed.

 

[Herat]

I have no sympathy for anyone smuggling drugs whoever they are.

You see a lot of very sad stories on that To Catch a Smuggler series. Usually very poor women with children who desperately need money.

 

[Skigh]

You see a lot of very sad stories on that To Catch a Smuggler series. Usually very poor women with children who desperately need money.

Or they have their story ready to gain maximum sympathy.

 

[HmmMysterious]

This girl wanted to live her life fast and now, it seems like it's come to a fast ending imo

 

[Dotta]

The mirage of easy money lures the naive & thoughtless.

"Often,
the quickest shortcuts lead to the greatest losses.”

And the loss of the most beautiful years of a lifetime - the youth - in a prison cell,
is absolutely not worth any amount of money.

Oh dear...
Too bad!

JMO

 

[whitelilac]

I'm mindblown by the fact she's only 18 years old, still a teen. And getting involved in these fraudulent companies as well, when she was even younger...17, 16? Did her parents really have no clue? Besides, I would never have let my daughter go off for weeks to Thailand and wherever. At that age you don't have the life experience, nor mindfulness of the dangers you can get yourself in.
I knew a kid, now in her thirties, who also went off to Bali, India, South America, various other countries starting at age 17, and was very lucky after she did in fact get into iffy and dangerous life threatening situations.

 

[musicaljoke]

There is no way that was not know about at the airport she departed from.

Usually airports don't care when the stuff is leaving the country. It's when it is coming into a country that the guards are up.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

With the companies, I don’t actually think it was as sinister as I first thought. It sounds like word went round via the refer a friend on Facebook (Daily Mail link posted upthread) that you could earn £550 by giving some Chinese bloke your passport details. Not thinking ahead, that you now have companies listed in your name and how that could potentially affect you at some point. Let alone that you’re “selling” your ID, basically! Total lack of foresight - seems to be a theme.

 

[Dotta]

"Ms Todua gave details of her client's looming trial,
with the prosecutor in Bella's case asking for 55 days
to pull together evidence before Bella goes to court.

This could mean
a court case could be pencilled in for July.

She also revealed
that Bella penned a letter requesting a meeting with her father and aunt.

However,
she faces a wait of several days for a response.

If granted,
the meeting could last up to an hour,
according to Ms Todua."

Bella May Culley prosecutor 'wants 55 days to gather evidence,' says lawyer

Bella May Culley was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking in Georgia last week after initially being reported missing in Thailand by her worried family

www.dailystar.co.uk

 

[Herat]

With the companies, I don’t actually think it was as sinister as I first thought. It sounds like word went round via the refer a friend on Facebook (Daily Mail link posted upthread) that you could earn £550 by giving some Chinese bloke your passport details. Not thinking ahead, that you now have companies listed in your name and how that could potentially affect you at some point. Let alone that you’re “selling” your ID, basically! Total lack of foresight - seems to be a theme.

Yeah, the flashing red signs are all over this.

These days, £550 isn't really all that much money and doesn't go far when you are young and want the latest phone or such.

 

[Seni]

But she will be liable for tax and import duties. She doesnt know about income and expenditure made on that account.

 

[Seni]

I'm wondering how the dealer was planning to pay her? I bet at the moment of handing over goods. Don't think there will have been an advance payment

Because of risk and probably other mules being sent by big operator who grassed a few whilst getting the big deals through.

 

[Seni]

This is the photo of the £ 1.5 million stash of marijuana and products that was discovered in the two large suitcases of CML in Colombo, Sri Lanka

46 kg , 101 pounds of marijuana

I wonder how she even got those on the plane without an overweight baggage charge. I doubt they would need sniffer dogs to detect that. The suitcases must have reeked of it.

View attachment 586910

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In general, but not always you get a 23 kilo allowance for one suitcase on long distance flights.

Bangkok to Colombo is not long distance.

Would be a lot to pay for two 23 kilo suitcases

 

[Skigh]

Bella should just have flown with her contraband back to the U.K.

Pregnant drugs mule trying to smuggle cannabis into UK is spared jail

Daniella KanKam-Adu, 19, was offered £250 in return for smuggling £225,000 worth of cannabis from Canada to Newcastle Airport on March 3 this year.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Dotta]

"Legal expert 'concerned' over arrest saying
probe was 'stopped too early'.

Georgian legal expert
has expressed his concern over how police carried out their investigation into claims British teen smuggled drugs into Georgia.

'I would like to express my worry
that the operation was stopped too early before it could reach its logical conclusion,
before we could find out who she was in contact with,
who she was going to, and so on',
he said.

'Maybe it’s the first attempt.
A test run from Thailand to check whether it [the route] would work
but we won’t know because it was stopped.

Had the operation been done properly,
we would have found out what the final destination was.

I have suspicion that the final destination is likely to be Europe rather than Georgia'.

'I feel sorry for this woman
because she was clearly used and manipulated.
She’s 18, she’s a foreigner, pregnant.
All of this indicates that she was chosen deliberately,
chosen carefully, she was studied.

Whoever chose her, they knew what they were doing',
he added."

Bella May Culley lawyer says prosecutor wants 55 days to gather evidence - live

Bella May Culley, 18, is alleged to have smuggled dozens of bags of cannabis and hashish into the former Soviet Union country of Georgia and is currently being held in prison

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[Skigh]

With the companies, I don’t actually think it was as sinister as I first thought. It sounds like word went round via the refer a friend on Facebook (Daily Mail link posted upthread) that you could earn £550 by giving some Chinese bloke your passport details. Not thinking ahead, that you now have companies listed in your name and how that could potentially affect you at some point. Let alone that you’re “selling” your ID, basically! Total lack of foresight - seems to be a theme.

Bella would have had numerous internet safety lessons from infant school right through secondary school. She should have had the knowledge that giving any personal data to unauthorised people is extremely foolish and one of the main bullet points of things not to do in all internet safety messages.