Cabin courier lands in jail - Airhostess blames husband, UK court unconvinced

AMIT ROY

Mandeep Shahi. Picture credit: Metropolitan Police, London London, Dec. 21: A 27-year-old Indian-origin airhostess working for Air Canada was sent to prison for eight years yesterday after being convicted of smuggling 4kg of cocaine worth £240,000 into Britain. Her cut is not known. However, after acting as a drugs courier on one trip from Toronto to Britain, Mandeep Shahi went to a shopping centre in west London and splashed out on a £200 handbag.  Scotland Yard described Mandeep as “a corrupt member of cabin crew” while the judge said she had abused her position because she knew employees of Air Canada were unlikely to be searched at Heathrow since Canada was not considered a prime source of hard drugs. Mandeep, a Canadian national who lives in Mississauga, Ontario, became part of a drugs gang in which her crucial role was to act as courier. During the trial in London, Mandeep said her husband, Bhupinder Sanghera, might have hidden the 4kg of cocaine among the clothes in her suitcase without her knowledge. As far as she was concerned, “it was a regular day, a regular flight, a normal situation for me”, she told jurors. The consignment was handed over to Bhupinder’s cousin, Baljinder Nijjar, in London. But Judge Gledhill was sceptical of Mandeep’s account even though she shed tears in court. He told Mandeep: “You knew that the chances of your person or luggage being searched was nil, so when your husband told you, you could not say no and did not say no. Whether you were happy to do it or had reservations, I have no idea, but the fact is you were not acting under duress, and you could have chosen not to.” The authorities hope that the stiff prison sentence handed to Mandeep will serve as a warning to other cabin crew who might also be tempted by the lure of easy money. As a member of the cabin crew with Air Canada, Mandeep would have flown all over the world. At 27, she had her whole career ahead of her — and these days, with Indians travelling more and more, most of the world’s major airlines do make it a point to recruit Indian-origin cabin crew. It may be that her husband and his cousin persuaded her to act as a “drugs mule” but, as the court established, she was more than willing. Her career and her life now lie in ruins and her criminal record can never be erased. Air Canada, meanwhile, disowned their former airhostess. “The individual is no longer employed by Air Canada,” said an airline spokesperson, who could not bring herself to utter Mandeep’s name. “All employees undergo security background checks before being hired, and operational personnel get additional checks by Transport Canada because they work in restricted areas.” Detective Inspector Sarah Staff of Scotland Yard issued a statement after Mandeep’s sentencing: “This was a significant volume of dangerous Class A and B drugs clearly being imported with a view to selling in the London market. She abused her position as a member of cabin crew and is now facing the consequences of her corruption.” Nijjar, 28, got 12 years for trafficking; his partner in crime, an Englishman, Simon Howard-Harwood, also 28, received nine years. A 53-year-old driver, Ghulem Malik, who ferried around the drugs in his car, got away relatively light with three years. Mandeep is very lucky in one sense. The papers are full of the case of an Englishwoman, Shivaun Orton, 41, who has been caught in Malaysia with cannabis, Ecstasy and heroin valued at £16,000 and faces the prospect of being hanged. The evidence that emerged in court left little room for Mandeep to plead her innocence. CCTV in her London hotel put her at the centre of the crime. The Daily Mail gives a colourful account of Mandeep’s carefree ways. On March 26 this year, Mandeep flew from Toronto. “After breezing through customs checks after landing at Heathrow, she headed to a hotel to deliver the goods to a pair of major drug dealers.” After leaving the airport, she checked into the Danubius Hotel in Regent’s Park, central London, which was being staked out by undercover drugs officers who had been on the trail of Nijjar and Howard-Harwood for months. Nijjar was seen going into Mandeep’s room and left carrying a blue Air Canada bag — thought to contain the drugs. He then walked to room 221 where Howard-Harwood was staying and left empty-handed. Shortly afterwards, taxi driver Malik, who ferried drugs for the dealers, went to Howard-Harwood’s room, and left with a bag which he loaded into his vehicle and drove away. When police stopped him they found a kg of cocaine in his car. When officers raided Howard-Harwood’s room they found him dressed in his underpants, with a line of cocaine on a surface ready for him to snort — and remaining 3kg of cocaine in a wardrobe. The three men were, as Indian police would say, well and truly “nabbed”. But detectives identified Mandeep only after studying the hotel’s CCTV. They waited for her to return to London from Canada — and this process took five months. On August 2, Mandeep was arrested returning to the UK, again in her capacity as cabin crew. She was interviewed and charged. Subsequent searches of her luggage revealed that she had smuggled in a small amount of cannabis. Her fall was now complete. (the telegraph calcutta) ================================================