{"id":564232,"date":"2025-11-11T19:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/564232\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T19:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:50:15","slug":"ketamine-addict-arrested-at-manchester-airport-amid-desperate-attempt-to-pay-off-drug-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/564232\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketamine addict arrested at Manchester Airport amid desperate attempt to pay off drug debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Wood has now been jailed<\/p>\n

19:14, 11 Nov 2025Updated 19:19, 11 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

Wood was detained after arriving at Manchester Airport from Thailand(Image: Manchester Airport)<\/p>\n

A ketamine addict tried to smuggle tens of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis through Manchester Airport<\/a> in order to wipe his drug debt, a court heard.<\/p>\n

Luke Wood, 29, was stopped at around 1.15pm on October 11 after landing on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand, via Doha.<\/p>\n

Immigration officials asked to see inside his suitcase, but he refused to give them the code to unlock it.<\/p>\n

He told them, \u2018you\u2019re not making it easy for me, so I\u2019m not making it easy for you\u2019 Abigail Holmes, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join our Court and Crime WhatsApp group HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As officers broke into his bag, he then said, \u2018I may as well tell you the bag is full of cannabis, I was forced to do it.’ Inside, 20kg of cannabis was found in 36 separate packages, with a value of \u00a361,350, the court was told.<\/p>\n

After being arrested, he told officers in a prepared statement that \u2018arrangements were made by others, to who I owe a substantial debt.\u2019 I was left with no choice\u2019 he said as he claimed he was told if he didn\u2019t do it his \u2018family\u2019s lives were at risk.\u2019 The prosecution accepted he was put under \u2018pressure\u2019 to import the drugs, Ms Holmes said.<\/p>\n

Wood, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug. The court heard he has 17 previous convictions for 26 offences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drug debt arises out of his Ketamine addiction\u201d Adam Roxborough, defending, said. “If it is not addressed, he will still be prey for those who supply that drug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Events in his youth\u2019 had proved traumatic for him, but Wood wanted to kick his addiction \u2018for his daughter\u2019s sake\u2019 Mr Roxborough said<\/p>\n

Despite pleas to suspend the sentence so he could receive drug treatment, Recorder Andrew Vinson sent him straight to prison, jailing him for a year.<\/p>\n

He said although Wood performed a \u2018limited function\u2019 in the enterprise, it was a \u2018significant amount\u2019 of drugs. He said the fact Wood was on bail for another alleged drugs offence at the time was also a \u2018serious aggravating factor.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Wood has now been jailed 19:14, 11 Nov 2025Updated 19:19, 11 Nov 2025 Wood was detained after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,30,393,4884,2465,2314,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-564232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-airport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115532806771365597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}