UK uni student tried (and failed) to smuggle £350,000 of drugs to pay his tuition fees

A UK uni student has been sentenced to jail after attempting to smuggle 33kg of drugs to help pay his university tuition fees.

The anonymous 29-year-old student ran into a stranger at a pub, who suggested a new way for him to pay for uni. The student told the court, “I met a guy in a pub in London. I wanted to use this money for my tuition fees.”

The stranger told the student he could make €10,000 (£8,300) by taking a suitcase from Thailand to Amsterdam in July. The student went with his 24-year-old girlfriend, who paid for both their flights.

The couple’s suitcases
(Image via Korneuburg District Court and NF/newsX)

The couple made a stopover in Vienna. A customs officer spotted that their suitcases were stuffed with 33kg of cannabis, which is worth nearly £350,000.

According to local media, the student’s defence lawyer explained to the jury in Korneuburg District Court on 31st October that tuition fees and living costs for UK uni student’s four year degree would be about €100,000 (£83,000). He told the court, “It’s primarily about students who are promised that they can check in a suitcase and get a lot of money for it. Young people are being shamelessly exploited.”

Vienna airport
(Credit: Stanislav Doronenko via creative commons)

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Sentences for smuggling this amount of drugs can be up to 15 years in prison. However, the lawyer’s arguments seem to have won over the judge, because the student only received a 30 month prison sentence. Apparently, the student is likely to only actually spend six months of that in prison. Because the student has been in prison since he was caught in July, he’s already served most of his sentence.

The girlfriend doesn’t have to go to jail. The judge gave her a one-year suspended prison sentence.

The judge said, “General prevention is the most important point here. That’s why the defendant is not going home today. There are enough people who are in need and who do not commit criminal acts.”