My London reports
A hard-up dad who smuggled cocaine worth £360,000 hidden in his suitcase on a flight from Jamaica to London Gatwick Airport said he did it to support his family. Seth Allen, 27, a former machine setter from Birmingham, found himself jobless at the end of last year, struggling to support his pregnant girlfriend and two children on just £300 a month in Universal Credit payments.
Looking for a quick fix, he agreed to work as a courier for a drug trafficker, then hopped on a plane to the Caribbean on Boxing Day 2023. After spending nearly a month there, during which time Allen almost backed out of the scheme, on January 16 he returned from Kingston on a flight to London Gatwick Airport with 4.5kg of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment at the bottom of his suitcase.
But as he rolled through customs, Allen was stopped by Border Force officials who pulled him aside at Gatwick’s South Terminal and questioned him about his trip. Allen claimed he had been on holiday, that he had packed the bag himself, that he had nothing to declare, and no one had forced him to smuggle anything into the UK, prosecutor Henna Baig told the Old Bailey.
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/hard-up-dad-universal-credit-28810372
Sean Hocking
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