British flight attendant,21, faces up to 25 years in prison for smuggling 46kg of synthetic cannabis into Sri Lanka

Friday, May 30, 2025 - A young British former flight attendant accused of smuggling £1.2 million of super-strength cannabis into Sri Lanka has appeared in court.

Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Colombo after police discovered 46 kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis in her suitcase.

She had just arrived in the Sri Lankan capital on a flight from Bangkok in Thailand. She was arrested at Bandaranaike Airport and taken into custody on Monday, May 11.

Today Charlotte was filmed being escorted to a prison van by police outside the court building in Colombo.

She was visibly tearful when she appeared in the courtroom. 

The former TUI flight attendant was held in a cell at the back of the room and then briefly led to the witness box but struggled to follow proceedings because it was in the main language of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese.

Police also wheeled in the near-50kg haul of cannabis she was caught carrying into court as their investigation into the drugs bust continues.

Charlotte is expected to appear in the dock again in two weeks.

She is facing up to 25 years locked in a hellhole Sri Lankan jail but she has insisted she has been set up.

Speaking to MailOnline from behind bars in the woman's ward of a notorious prison last week, Miss Lee said she had 'no idea' that there were drugs in her luggage when she set off for Sri Lanka.

She said: 'I had never seen them before. I didn't expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff.

'I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early.

'So I left my bags in the hotel room and headed for the night out. As they were already packed I didn't check them again in the morning.

'They must have planted it then.'

And she added: 'I know who did it.'

Miss Lee told us she had been working temporarily on a 'booze cruise' in Thailand but her 30-day visa was about to run out so she decided to take a trip to nearby Sri Lanka while she waited for her Thai visa to be renewed.

She decided to go to the country because it was nearby, only a three-hour flight away and she had never visited there before.

'I thought while I was waiting for the visa that I'd come to Sri Lanka.

'They [the people she believed planted the drugs] were supposed to meet me here. But now I'm here - stuck in this jail.'