Keira Borrett was stopped with suitcases full of herbal cannabis after attempting to pass through customs at Heathrow.

The 46-year-old was arrested on May 23 after arriving back in the UK from Bangkok, travelling via the United Arab Emirates, on what was purported to be a birthday celebration trip to Thailand.

Border Force x-ray scan that discovered cannabis worth £800,000 in two suitcases (Image: NCA)

A luggage check saw Border Force officers find vacuum-sealed parcels of herbal cannabis - estimated to be worth £800,000 - packed into two suitcases.

Borrett, of Lowestoft Road in Gorleston, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.

READ MORE: Smuggler from Gorleston caught with cannabis at Heathrow

Isleworth Crown Court was told the smuggler, who is male, identified as a woman and had agreed to transport the cases into the UK in exchange for £10,000 in the hope of using it to finance transition surgery.

The court was told Keira Borrett identifies as a transgender woman (Image: Facebook)

Sahra Ali, prosecuting, said during an interview officers had been told a chance meeting in a Bangkok bar with a man from Essex had seen “conversation turn to sex-change operations and how expensive they were”.

The man offered to introduce Borrett to two other men who asked the defendant to take two cases on the return journey back to the UK.

Shortly before the flight, two "very heavy” bags were dropped off by men in an SUV.

These were then checked in as luggage under........

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