Louisa De Marco has been jailed
Louisa De Marco(Image: GMP)
A former Asda manager has been locked up after she entered into a criminal scheme with her ‘eyes wide open’.
Louisa De Marco, 53, was caught trying to smuggle more than 30 kilos of cannabis into the UK through Manchester Airport. She had flights to Thailand for her and a friend paid for, and was promised £10,000 if the smuggling bid proved successful, Manchester Crown Court heard.
But she was found out and detained after arriving back on home soil. Prosecuting, Chloe Fordham said that De Marco, a mother, was stopped by Border Force officers at Manchester Airport after arriving on May 8, on a flight from Thailand via Abu Dhabi. Two suitcases were taken from the carousel, which she denied were hers.
She also denied that she’d packed them. De Marco told the officers that she believed they contained tobacco.
The suitcases were found to contain 31.25 kilos of the class B drug. During an interview with police, De Marco said that on a previous trip to Thailand, she had met someone who told her she could make money by bringing cannabis into the UK.
She was put in touch with others who then paid for her and a friend’s flights to Thailand. De Marco said she was also offered £10,000, which she did not ultimately receive. The defendant refused to tell police the PIN number for her phone.
Defending, Bradley Mather said the defendant was experiencing ‘financial difficulties’ at the time. She had previously worked in a ‘management role’ at Asda earning around £40,000 a year, but lost her job after the Covid pandemic, Mr Mather said.
De Marco has since been assessed as unfit to work due to physical and mental health difficulties and receives benefits, the court heard. Mr Mather argued there had been an element of ‘intimidation’ from her handlers who had arranged the smuggling bid, after they were said to have threatened to cancel her flights home if she refused to comply.
He appealed for De Marco to be spared jail, arguing she had strong mitigation and noting the potential impact on her adult daughter, who relies on her mother to help pay the rent at their home.
But the judge, Recorder Sarah Griffin, sent her to prison for 20 months, telling her she’d serve half of the term behind bars.
The judge said the case was serious because De Marco had flown out to Thailand with her ‘eyes wide open’. “You knew exactly what you were involving yourself in,” she added.
De Marco, of Broadway, Bradford, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.