Stansted: Man jailed for trying to import drugs through Stansted

An international drug dealer who tried to import cannabis through Stansted Airport has been jailed thanks to work by our specialist officers.

Samson Kuteyi was arrested prior to boarding a flight from Heathrow Airport to Los Angeles on 22 April last year in connection for an unrelated matter.

Two iPhones, more than £7,000 and $500 in cash, and a Rolex worth nearly £43,000 were seized from him.

When the phones were examined, it became clear he was involved in buying large amounts of cannabis in the USA and Canada and importing it into the UK.

The 32 year-old, of Nags Head Road, Enfield, then sold the drugs to end users or to other dealers who would then start their own drug lines.

Through their investigation, officers from our specialist Proactive Money Laundering and Drug Liaison Team established Kuteyi had imported between 89 and 95kg of cannabis between 27 February 2023 and 21 April 2023.

More than 23kg of the drug was seized by Border Force at Stansted Airport before it was able to reach its intended destination between August 2022 and June 2023.

On each occasion Border Force officers found the drugs in vacuum wrapped packages weighing roughly half a kilo each.

All the packages were being sent from the USA to addresses in the UK and through work with Border Force officials it was possible to link the airway bill reference numbers back to Kuteyi.

Officers were also able to establish that Kuteyi was involved in the supply of at least 14kg of cannabis to people within the UK.

They also identified that he had been involved in obtaining and facilitating the supply of false driving licences.

He was charged with being concerned in the supply of a Class B drug, concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a Class B drug, and two counts of copying a false instrument with intent to be accepted as genuine.

He admitted the charges at Chelmsford Crown Court on 30 May and on Tuesday 26 November, at the same court, he was jailed for a total of six years.

Acting Detective Inspector Mike Monkton said:

“Samson Kuteyi was an international drug dealer involved in selling cannabis on a commercial scale, employing at least seven people.

“Drugs are a poison on our society, infecting communities, and ruining lives.

“The sale of drugs like cannabis go hand-in-hand with violence and exploitation and it is something we cannot tolerate.

“We will now work to seize Kuteyi’s ill-gotten gains through the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

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