It was a busy weekend for international marijuana trafficking, as two unrelated pot smuggling attempts were thwarted in Belfast and Istanbul respectively.
A teenager was stopped at the George Best Belfast City Airport airport in Northern Ireland with a suitcase full of weed. The accused Malaysian citizen, Jovy Wong, claims that a stranger paid him £200 to take the suitcase to Belfast.
Wong has been charged with the importation of Class B drugs. His lawyer, Gary Adair, challenged the evidence presented, saying that his client left Spain without any cannabis. Adair added that Wong then traveled to Newcastle, England before boarding a train to Glasgow and then finally on to Belfast where he was apprehended.
As both Glasgow and Belfast are both in the United Kingdom, and it was Glasgow where Wong claims he was approached, Adair said that “there’s no evidence that he crossed an international border with this substance.” Adair added that it was in Glasgow where Wong “made the mistake to take this suitcase for a gentleman at Glasgow airport.”
Wong is currently in custody and will appear again by video link on August 30.
In Istanbul, a Moroccan man was caught…