British suspected drug mules Bella Culley and ex-TUI air hostess Charlotte Lee shared a very key connection in their strange cases, it has been revealed following their arrests
British teenager Bella May Culley and former air hostess Charlotte Lee were both arrested this month on separate drug smuggling charges – and they both left from the same airport.
Bella, 18, was detained in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 13, despite going on holiday to Thailand on May 3. Her family lost contact with the teenager shortly after, and she was reported missing before suddenly turning up almost 4,000 miles away.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Charlotte was arrested in Colombo, Sri Lanka last week. She was allegedly carrying 46kg of a synthetic drug called kush inside two suitcases when she was detained. But, while both were detained in separate countries, they both departed from the very same airport.
Both Bella and Charlotte left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport this month, and they were both travelling on their own.
It’s also claimed that police found air-tight packages containing drugs on both suspects, and were likely stacked by professionals.
Both Bella and Charlotte told their families they were meeting a man during their trip to Thailand. Bella’s grandad, William Culley, 80, previously claimed that the teen had planned to meet someone named “Russ or Ross”.
If both Brits are found guilty of drug smuggling, Bella and Charlotte could face at least 20 years and 25 years in prison, respectively.
Bella’s lawyer, Mariam Kublashvili, said she’s being denied medical care while being held and awaiting trial.
She said: “She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasn’t getting – there were no tests or checks or medical examinations done, she told me. She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn’t speaking English and they couldn’t understand each other.”
Bella also asked for a jumper, warmer clothes and fresh fruit. Ms Kublashvili said the fruit – and requests for tuna – are pregnancy cravings.
The Georgian prosecutor asked for 55 days to gather evidence against Bella, who had recently finishing a college programme in the UK in the hope to become a nurse. She’s also reportedly sharing a cell with two inmates at notorious Women’s Penitentiary Number Five in the nation, which borders Russia.
In Sri Lanka, Charlotte is being held in a “hellhole” overcrowded prison, after being accused of smuggling £1.2million of kush into the country.
She is currently being held in a local jail, Negombo Prison, while her case progresses through the courts. If she’s found guilty of the charges, Charlotte faces being sent to Welikada Prison – Sri Lanka’s largest, maximum security jail.
One anonymous female prisoner said, in an interview in 2011: “We are treated as far less than human. About 150 of us sleep in a cell designed for 75 people.
“An open drain infested with rats runs the perimeter of the room. Recently, one of the inmates was bitten and had to be rushed to the hospital for an anti-rabies shot.”
A friend, close to the Lee family, told the Sun on Sunday: “We’re frantically worried. She was arrested then seemingly abandoned and is rotting in a jail cell. She’s very scared.” Another friend added: “She’s been told if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she’s looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail.”