A young British couple from the West Midlands are facing up to 30 years in a Turkish prison after allegedly being caught attempting to smuggle two suitcases packed with cannabis through Istanbul on their way back to the UK — with one of them reportedly beaten up in a holding cell within hours of their arrest.
Holly Cooper and Taylor Johnson, both 20, were stopped by customs officers at Istanbul Airport on 26 April after arriving on a connecting flight from Thailand. According to The Sun, which first reported the story, they were pulled aside as they attempted to board their onward flight to London and taken to an interview room for questioning. They were subsequently formally arrested before a court in Istanbul and are now being held in custody ahead of their next hearing.
The ordeal has drawn comparisons to the 1978 film Midnight Express, which depicted a young American’s horrific experience in a Turkish jail after a drugs arrest. A family friend told The Sun the couple’s relatives were “in bits.” He said: “They’ve been recruited and groomed by bigger criminals and exploited by them. They are alone in a Turkish prison. It’s shocking and apparently Taylor has been beaten up.” He added: “OK, they’ve done something stupid this time, but everyone makes mistakes. They are good kids.”
Holly’s aunt, Maxine Cooper, confirmed her niece had been arrested. Friends of the couple have since launched a crowdfunding appeal to help cover legal costs, as the pair are currently being represented only by public defenders. The case is unlikely to come to trial for up to a year.
The pair, from Coseley and Wednesbury respectively, are believed to have flown to Thailand last month before travelling home via Istanbul. Holly had posted photographs from Gran Canaria in February — a location family sources suggested may have been where the couple were initially recruited by drug traffickers.
Under Turkish law, drug trafficking offences involving export or import carry a sentence of between 10 and 20 years, rising to 30 years or more in aggravated cases. Turkey operates a strict zero-tolerance policy on all controlled substances, and foreign nationals face the same penalties as Turkish citizens. Even possession for personal use can result in a statutory prison sentence of between two and five years.
The case bears a striking resemblance to an incident reported in December 2025, in which two young French women were sentenced to ten years each by a Turkish court for transporting nearly 25 kilograms of cannabis from Thailand in two suitcases during a stopover in Istanbul. The women, aged 22 and 23, had always maintained they did not know what they were carrying.
Holly and Taylor’s case is the latest in a pattern of young Britons being caught up in drug smuggling operations. The so-called Peru Two — Michaella McCollum from Northern Ireland and Melissa Reid from Scotland — were arrested in Lima in 2013 carrying cocaine. Both served time in a Peruvian prison before being repatriated.
The Foreign Office confirmed it was providing consular support to two British nationals detained in Turkey and to their families.
