Inside maggot-infested ‘hellhole’ prison where a young Brit air stewardess faces being locked up after she ‘smuggled 100lb of synthetic cannabis into Sri Lanka’: Inmates tell of being treated ‘less than human’

This is the ‘hellhole’ overcrowded prison where a young British woman accused of smuggling £1.2million worth of drugs into Sri Lanka faces being banged up in.

Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Colombo last week after being accused of smuggling 46kg of Kush – a synthetic form of cannabis – into the country.

The youngster, who had been travelling from Bangkok, is currently being held in a local jail, Negombo Prison, while her case progresses through the courts.

Legal sources in the country have said Miss Lee, if found guilty of the charges held against her, faces being sent to Welikada Prison in the capital Colombo – the country’s largest, maximum security jail.

The prison has a miserable history past and has been described as a ‘hell’ for female prisoners in particular – with maggots being reportedly found food and rats scuttling around extremely overcrowded cells.

Speaking a year ahead of the deadly riots that took place in 2012, an anonymous female prisoner said: ‘We are treated as far less than human.

‘About 150 of us sleep in a cell designed for 75 people. An open drain infested with rats runs the perimeter of the room. Recently, one of the inmates was bitten and had to be rushed to the hospital for an anti-rabies shot.’

Likening the prison to ‘hell’, another woman told Al Jazeera back in 2011: ‘There are 650 of us in the female ward though it was built for 150 people.

‘We eat, bathe, sleep, wake up and begin all over again. There are no attempts at rehabilitation. Women here just waste away.’

A year later the prison, previously known for its 1983 massacre which saw 55 Tamil prisoners killed by Sinhalese inmates, was back in the headlines.

Prison riots that broke out in November 2012 left 27 inmates dead and more than 40 injured in what was quickly called a ‘massacre’.

In 2019 former Prisons Commissioner Emil Lamahewage was convicted over the killings and in 2022 was handed the death penalty for the incident, which the courts said saw eight people called forward by name and shot dead.

More recently in 2018, female protestors took to the roof of the prison demanding to be released on bail calling out the delays in their court cases.

And in November 2020, as the Covid pandemic shut down large parts of the world, another riot broke out in the prison.

Inmates had launched a protest over the surge in coronavirus infections in the prisons and started demanding to be released on bail early or to be given better facilities.

Eight people were said to have died with 52 people injured that day after inmates clashed with guards, with police officers saying that they ‘used force to control an unruly situation’.

Sri Lanka is facing a crisis with overcrowding in its prisons across the country – with the country’s prison department claiming there are ‘too many jailbirds, not enough jail guards’.

Earlier this year, the country’s Parliament was told earlier this year that prisons across the country were more than 20,000 beyond its capacity.

Meanwhile, prisons were short of nearly 850 female and male prison guards, according to local newspaper Sunday Times.

The overcrowded nature of the country’s prisons raises the question of whether this will impact the judge’s sentencing decision, if Miss Lee were found guilty of drug smuggling charges.

The Londoner, who was training to become an eyelash technician, attended Negombo Magistrates Court on Monday.

There she was accused of two charges, one of possesing illegal drugs and another of importing illegal drugs into Sri Lanka.

During the court hearing she was given a detention order to remain in Sri Lanka and will return to the Magistrates again later this week.

A legal source who witnessed the case told MailOnline: ‘She arrived at court and she seemed completely lost. She was crying a lot and was all on her own. It looked like she didn’t have any idea about what was going on. She will either have to pay a fine or she will be sent to Welikada Prison in Colombo.’

It is unknown at present which prison, if any, Miss Lee could be taken to if found guilty of the charges brought against her.

The haul of drugs, which according to police was the largest ever amount of illegal substances found in the airport, were intended for ‘high-end local buyers’.

Shocking video footage provided to MailOnline shows two large suitcases sat down in front of dozens of airtight bags of the illegal substance and a group of narcotics detectives who uncovered the alleged smuggling.

In the background of the clip, a British woman’s accent can be heard in the background.

Pictures from the scene show six officers in the airport standing over two large suitcases and dozens of large vacuum packed bags of the drug.

Officials from the Customs Narcotics Control Unit in the airport said it is the largest amount of Kush ever to be detected since the international hub opened.

Sources close to the investigation said the ‘massive consignment’ is worth around 460million Sri Lankan rupees.

The drugs, which have now been seized, were allegedly found in ‘tightly packed in luggage’ and are believed to have been intended for ‘high-end local buyers’.

Miss Lee has been remanded to custody while the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) investigates the case and potential legal action, according to local reporters.

Meanwhile the Foreign Office in the UK has confirmed that it is supporting a British woman who has been arrested in Sri Lanka and is in contact with her family, as well as local authorities.

According to Miss Lee’s friends she has posted on Snapchat claiming she was being held at a police headquarters in Sri Lanka.

One woman, close to the cabin crew member turned lash technician, said that she was shocked when she heard the allegation as Miss Lee was a ‘nice girl’ and a ‘hard worker’.

The friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. She’s a hard worker and a grafter.’

‘We are shocked. I am in total shock. She’s a nice girl,’ she added.

‘She is a really nice girl, there were no red flags or anything,’ another friend said.

‘We saw clips of the arrest and we could hear an English woman, who sounded very much like Charlotte in the background.’

Meanwhile a family friend told The Sun:‘We’re frantically worried. She was arrested then seemingly abandoned and is rotting in a jail cell. She’s very scared.’

Another added: ‘She’s been told that if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she is looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail. British Embassy staff warned her she’s going nowhere soon.’

Miss Lee had previously worked as a cabin crew member for TUI, yet friends have said this was only a ‘summer contract’.

Her social media accounts show her appearing to have a great time working for the travel company, posing in her stewardess uniform and even in the cockpit of one of the planes.

Since then, the young woman who grew up in the South London town, was training to become a lash technician.

Other photos shared on her socical media show her living the typical life of a young woman in her early twenties – out drinking at the pub with friends or dancing at nightclubs.

Miss Lee, according to friends, first flew out to Thailand in April to celebrate her 21st birthday with her older sister who was meeting her from Australia, where she lives.

Following the holiday, Miss Lee is said to have returned to Coulsdon, telling mates that she ‘loved Thailand and wanted to work out there’.

She mentioned around four weeks ago that ‘she had a job on a boat’ in the south-east Asian country but according to her friend did not mention any immediate plans of returning.

Yet last week, the young woman began posting pictures again of beautiful white sand beaches and selfies of her partying abroad.

And on Monday, the day of her arrest, she had posted a TikTok of herself on a plane, wearing a facemask, as she flew over a pretty island. She tagged the location of the video as Bangkok.

Days later, after rumours about Miss Lee’s arrest began in Coulson, she is said to have sent some friends a Snapchat from Sri Lankan custody, briefly filming herself and assuring them she was okay.

The friend, who spoke to MailOnline, added: ‘No one has heard from her in a few days. Her Snapchat did go live at one point but whether it was her or the police we don’t know.

‘She went travelling to Thailand for her 21st birthday and her sister paid for her to go out there as her birthday present. That was in April at some point.

‘She was back here [in the UK] in May and then she was off again. But she did not mention she was going away, nothing was said. And previously she would have said [about her plans].

‘When she got back the first time she did say she loved it. I asked her what about going to Australia, as there’s nothing here, and she said she should look into it one day. But that was it.’

The incident comes just days after a British teenager was arrested in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi after allegedly arriving from Thailand carrying 14kg of cannabis in her luggage.

Bella May Culley, 18, is now facing life in prison in the former Soviet country after being accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics.

The youngster from Billingham, Country Durham, was believed to have gone missing in Thailand before she was detained 3,700 miles away at Tbilisi International Airport on the charges.

Miss Culley, who has been taken into court, now faces a minimum term of 15 years but could be jailed for life.

Her lawyer said the teen, who claimed in court she was pregnant, ended up in the eastern European country ‘without knowing what she was doing’ and was ‘visibly shaken’ when she learned her fate’.

The teen was travelling around the Philippines and Thailand before she boarded the flight to Georgia from Bangkok via Sharjah, UAE. Miss Culley has yet to reveal to her lawyer how she came to be in possession of the narcotics.

She first appeared in Tbilisi city court on May 13 which was broadcast locally and word finally reached her family the following day.

Her father Neil, 49, who had flown out to Thailand to search for her, flew to Georgia with auntie Kerrie, 51. But they have been cruelly blocked from visiting her by local bureaucracy.

Miss Culley has been remanded in custody until her next appearance on July 1.

Both cases have sparked fears that Thai gangs are targeting young British backpackers when they travel abroad.

Miss Lee and Miss Culley, who both flew out of Bangkok on Monday, were arrested in the countries within hours of each other, meaning the cases could be related.

Both girls departed from the Thai capital during the Royal Ploughing Ceremony weekend. It is one of the busiest festivals of the year when airports are overloaded with tourists – a prime opportunity for gangs to try to push through mules.

The two arrests also follow a huge crackdown on smugglers sending cannabis to the UK by post.

A joint operation by both countries has seen a 90 per cent in reduction in the drug being mailed to Britain since last year.

It suggests Thai gangs may now be reverting to using drug mules to ship their products instead – and targeting British backpackers.

Some 800 people, including 50 Britons, have been held in Thailand for alleged drug smuggling since last July, with more than nine tons of cannabis seized.

The British Embassy in Tbilisi told RFE: ‘We are assisting the family of the British woman detained in Georgia and are also in contact with the local authorities.’

The FCDO said with regards to Miss Lee’s case: ‘We are supporting a British woman who has been arrested in Sri Lanka and are in contact with her family and the local authorities.’