Brit teen ‘drug mule’ Bella Culley ‘TORTURED into trafficking £200k-worth of cannabis’ as she shows shock wound in court
BRITISH drug mule suspect Bella Culley was tortured into trafficking £200,000-worth of cannabis by evil crimelords, a court heard today.
Bella, 18, said a brutal Thai trafficker held her arm under a jet of steam to force her to fly with 31lb of cannabis to the former Soviet state of Georgia.
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The teenager showed off a vivid snake-like scar to the court in the capital of Tbilisi as she insisted she never touched the drugs she is accused of trafficking.
She was seen breaking down in tears alongside members of her family as a Georgian judge rejected her plea.
After six weeks banged up in a hellhole jail following her arrest, Bella told the hearing: “I didn't want to do this - I was forced under torture.
“I just wanted to travel, I just want to live with my family - I am a loving person, I am studying at the university to become a nurse.
“All I wanted to do was travel but bad things happened.”
The tearful teen, looking downcast in a pink shirt with her hair in a bun, added: “I don’t do drugs, as you can see in my blood tests, I am clean. I always wanted to make my family proud.”
Bella from Billingham, County Durham, claimed baggage containing the cannabis was carried to the airport for her and put in the plane’s hold when she boarded a flight from Bangkok in May.
Her family launched a missing person hunt in Thailand after she vanished on holiday but she turned up under arrest 4,000 miles away in the European nation.
Then on her first court appearance she announced she was pregnant.
Her baby bump had visibly grown in the latest court appearance as she was supported by her 39-year-old oil rig worker father Niel.
Bella told her family she was flying to meet a boyfriend in the Far East on a backpacking holiday, the court heard.
It has also come out that the father of her child is from the UK.
Her aunt Kerri Culley was in court and sobbed as evidence was presented.
Bella's lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia said corrupt Thai cops had been in on the plot and stopped the Brit from trying to raise the alarm before she flew to Georgia.
Mr Salakaia said she went to a police officer to show him the burns to her arm - but he took her to another officer who turned out to be a member of the drugs gang.
He argued that she should not stay in the tough No5 Women’s Penitentiary and requested bail.
Mr Salakaia said: “You’ll see her actual involvement with these charges in her own testimony that is coming shortly - she is innocent.
“Her emotional state exactly confirms that she was forced, I want to ask her to show the court her arm and you can see the burning scar.
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“This scar occurred before she was “equipped” with her baggage, that she never even touched.”
The lawyer said Bella never saw the drug bag - which flew to Georgia via Sharjah in Abu Dhabi - until she was arrested for importing it.
He said: “From Thailand to Sharjah, from Sharjah to Thailand, this baggage was carried by a different person. She was only given a passport and told you go there and there.
“She tried to inform the passport control but was paid no attention. She even has no idea geographically where she is - she thought Tbilisi was a country.
“She was given a photo and was told to keep it and that she would be approached by certain people. This meeting didn’t happen because she was detained.
“Said has never taken drugs and tests carried out by police once she arrived in Georgia proved she was telling the truth.”
Bella’s family said they were willing to submit a bail surety of at least £13,400 to guarantee her return to court to face trial after her lawyer said she had travelled to Thailand with just £70 cash.
But Judge Lela Kalichenko rejected her plea for bail insisting the teeanger was a potential flight risk and was receiving all necessary medical care where in prison.
A SLEW of drug mule arrests involving Brits have emerged in the last few months.
In April and May, two Brit women were arrested abroad for alleged drug smuggling.
Bella was the first after she allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia.
Meanwhile, former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was also caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka.
Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
As a young mum was detained in Germany for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand - in yet another shocking case.
Glamorous Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage.
It comes as a Brit couple claiming to be tourists from Thailand have been busted with more than 33kg of cannabis in their suitcases at a Spanish airport.
The pair were picked out by suspicious cops at Valencia Airport after displaying a “nervous and evasive attitude” and are now behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
Experts told The Sun how wannabe Brit Insta stars are being lured by cruel gangs into carting drugs across the world.
Then last month, a six-year-old British boy was arrested in Mauritius suspected of smuggling part of a £1.6million dope haul stuffed inside his wheelie case.
The lad was picked up by customs officials along with his mum and five other Brits as they arrived on the tropical island.
Authorities branded the use of a child in the audacious drug smuggling plot as “inhumane".
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