A 45-year-old woman from Hemyock in Devon has pleaded guilty to smuggling Class B drugs into the United Kingdom after arriving from Bangkok. Amy Jayne Durban, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 6 July, entered the country after travel from Thailand. Border Force officers detained her following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. The NCA says Durban arrived with two suitcases packed with cannabis. The drugs had an estimated street value of at least £512,000. Durban appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in July and was remanded to custody. On Thursday 6 August, at Isleworth Crown Court, she pleaded guilty to smuggling Class B drugs. She was remanded and is due to be sentenced on 14 October. The NCA said demand in the UK has driven an increase in people being recruited as drug couriers. It said couriers are often approached via social media by organised crime groups offering a “free” holiday and spending money in return for taking cannabis into the country, with others then taking over the drugs for onward movement. According to figures cited by the NCA, the number of cannabis smugglers caught arriving by plane rose from 142 in 2023 to 801 in 2024, an increase of 464%. The NCA said 976 were recorded in 2025 and that 2026 is on track to be worse, with 600 air passenger couriers arrested in the first six months. The NCA also highlighted a crackdown in Thailand, saying those caught face fines of about £680 per kilogram, with jail time of up to two years if fines are not paid. The NCA has launched a social media campaign warning people that smuggling cannabis from Thailand to the UK can result in a foreign prison sentence, directing viewers to Crimestoppers to report anonymously.