LONDON (BN24) — A 23-year-old California woman has been sentenced to more than five years in prison after authorities discovered over $1 million worth of crack cocaine hidden inside a massive Parmesan cheese wheel at London’s Heathrow Airport, British officials said.
Jamie Choi, of Los Angeles, was stopped by UK Border Force agents on May 25 after arriving on a flight from Brazil carrying a 17-pound wheel of Parmesan. The unusually heavy item raised suspicions, prompting officers to conduct further checks. Inside, investigators uncovered a sophisticated concealment containing highly pure crack cocaine.
Forensic tests revealed the drugs were 94% pure, making the stash worth more than $1 million on the street, officials 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,” Barry Vinall, a senior officer with the NCA, said in a statement.
Authorities also traced Choi’s travel route in the days leading up to her arrest. Records show she departed Los Angeles for Lima, Peru, before continuing through Asuncion, Paraguay, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, prior to boarding her flight to London.
When officers examined her belongings, they also found a notebook containing a handwritten entry dated May 21. In it, Choi wrote: “I dropped out of [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 pleaded guilty on August 6 to charges of importing Class A drugs and was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by a UK court.
The unusual case underscores the elaborate lengths international drug traffickers are taking to smuggle narcotics into Europe, even disguising shipments in seemingly harmless food products.
NewYorkPost
