Zane Jamahl Hutton-Lewis has been jailed after Border Force officers discovered 43.8kg of cannabis vacuum-sealed inside his luggage at Glasgow Airport, as new figures reveal a sharp rise in smuggling attempts from Thailand.
A man has been jailed for attempting to smuggle around £430,000 worth of cannabis into the UK on a flight from Thailand, following an investigation by Scotland’s Organised Crime Partnership. Zane Jamahl Hutton-Lewis, 34, of Dongola Road, Haringey, London, was stopped at Glasgow Airport on 21 January last year after arriving on a flight from Bangkok via Dubai. Border Force officers found 43.8kg of the Class B drug concealed inside his luggage, prompting an investigation led by officers from the National Crime Agency and Police Scotland. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, reduced from 18 months for his guilty plea, at Paisley Sheriff Court on Friday.
How the drugs were discovered
Border Force officers grew suspicious of Hutton-Lewis’s luggage during routine customs checks. On searching his bags, they found the cannabis vacuum-sealed inside multiple packages hidden across his suitcases, a method commonly used by organised crime groups to mask the smell of the drugs. He was arrested at the scene, and the case was subsequently investigated by the Scottish Organised Crime Partnership, a joint team of National Crime Agency and Police Scotland officers.
Part of a wider surge in smuggling from Thailand
Investigators said the case forms part of a broader increase in cannabis smuggling from Thailand, which has now overtaken the United States and Canada to become the UK’s largest source of imported cannabis. According to the National Crime Agency, the number of cannabis smugglers caught arriving in the UK has risen sharply in recent years: from 142 in 2023 to 801 in 2024, a 464% increase, before climbing further to 976 in 2025. In the first six months of 2026 alone, 600 air passenger couriers were arrested at UK airports, putting this year on track to surpass previous totals.
UK authorities seized more than 28 tonnes of cannabis from airline passengers during 2025 alone, underlining the scale of the increase in air passenger smuggling from Thailand. In February last year, a joint UK-Thai enforcement operation at Bangkok Airport intercepted 65 suspected couriers attempting to export more than two tonnes of cannabis.
New penalties and international cooperation
Hutton-Lewis’s sentencing comes after the National Crime Agency warned that Britons caught smuggling cannabis from Thailand now face substantial new fines or up to two years in prison under a policy introduced by Thai authorities on 17 June. Under the new regime, smugglers must pay Thai Customs 30,000 Baht, around £680, per kilogram of cannabis seized. The “average” smuggler caught in Thailand is found with 26 kilograms, equating to a fine of £17,680; those unable to pay face criminal prosecution and up to two years in detention.
The NCA has also agreed a new intelligence-sharing arrangement with Thai authorities, under which details of convicted cannabis couriers are passed to Thai immigration officials. As a result, some British nationals convicted of smuggling cannabis have already been refused entry to Thailand after completing their sentences.
NCA warning to would-be couriers
According to the NCA, most couriers are recruited through social media, where organised crime gangs offer free holidays and cash payments in exchange for transporting luggage. Beki Wright, Head of the NCA’s Borders Threat Team, urged people not to be tempted. “You will be kept in Thai detention until you have found the money to pay or for two years,” she said. “The crime groups that paid you to smuggle it will leave you high and dry. If convicted, you face potentially life-changing jail sentences both in the UK and especially abroad. You’ll also have a criminal record, which could wreck future job prospects and your ability to travel abroad. It just isn’t worth the risk.”
