British teacher jailed two years over 16.5 kg of cannabis at Réunion airport
The Saint-Denis correctional court sentenced a 43-year-old British former English teacher to two years in prison with continued detention on 10 June 2026, after customs found 16.5 kg of cannabis herb in his luggage on arrival from Bangkok. The court rejected his account that he believed he was carrying computer servers, and he also faces a 214,500-euro customs fine.
The Saint-Denis correctional court tried the 43-year-old British man by
immediate appearance on Wednesday 10 June 2026 and sentenced him to two years in
prison with continued detention.[1]Customs officers at Roland Garros Airport
found 16.5 kg of cannabis herb in his luggage when he arrived from Bangkok on 2
April 2026.[1]
Customs put the resale value of the herb at 214,500 euros, the same sum the
prosecution claimed as a customs fine.[1]
The prosecutor had sought four years in prison, telling the court that the
defendant knew perfectly well what he was carrying.[2]The defendant said an
intermediary he had known since 2014, when both lived in China, recruited him to
carry computer servers worth up to 20,000 pounds each for 7,000 pounds.[2]Investigators found messages, including in encrypted groups, in which he asked
whether what he was carrying was drugs.[2]
Zinfos974 described the case as part of a new drug route from Thailand to
Réunion, with four travellers from Bangkok or Chennai intercepted at Gillot in
2026 carrying about 17 kg each of Thai skunk.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Zinfos974zinfos974.comFR"I'm stupid": deux ans ferme pour la mule anglaise arrêtée à Gillot avec 16,5 kg de cannabis de Thaïlande
LINFO.relinfo.reFR16,5 kilos de cannabis dans ses bagages : un professeur anglais condamné à deux ans de prison
Open questions the AI reported
LINFO.re gives no date for the seizure and Zinfos974 gives 2 April 2026; the report dates the event at the 10 June 2026 sentencing.
The 214,500-euro customs fine was requested by customs at the hearing; whether the court imposed exactly that sum is not stated, only that he must pay the customs fine corresponding to the value of the goods.
The 214,500 euros is both the customs fine claimed and the customs resale valuation of the 16.5 kg; no separate market value was published.
The defendant is named in Zinfos974 only as Kieran K.; his full identity and any appeal are not reported.
LINFO.re says the bags contained several kilos of cannabis resin and herb, while both headline and weight figures refer to 16.5 kg of herb; only the herb weight is recorded.
Zinfos974 lists five travellers and 25 kg of cannabis intercepted in one April week, and this man's 16.5 kg may be part of that total; those other interceptions are separate events not covered here.
No photograph established to show this seizure was found; LINFO.re's cover image is a generic zamal illustration credited to Antenne Réunion, and Zinfos974 uses an archive picture of a Bangkok-airport seizure.
The outcome is a first-instance sentence; no ruling on a possible appeal was reported.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Zinfos974: His lawyer, pleading acquittal, said nothing proved he knew and that he had handed over his phone codes to investigators and been as cooperative as possible.
Customs officers at Roland-Garros airport arrested a 20-year-old man arriving from Paris on 10 September 2026 with 37 kg of cannabis resin and 15 kg of cocaine. The court later found him guilty and sentenced him to five years in prison with continued detention and a five-year ban from Réunion.
The Saint-Denis appeal court raised the sentences of three of four men who ran zamal from Réunion to Mauritius between July 2023 and April 2025. The former chief of staff of the Sainte-Suzanne mayor and a second defendant drew seven years each, a third five years; the fourth term stayed at four years.
The Saint-Denis criminal court convicted all twelve defendants in the Réunion–Mauritius zamal trafficking case on 12 June 2026, jailing former Sainte-Suzanne chief of staff Bertrand de Boisvilliers for four years. Laurent Mariaye drew five years, and investigators tied the network to 147 kg of cannabis seized aboard de Boisvilliers's boat.
Four people arrested in a 2 October 2025 control at Roland Garros Airport were sentenced on 26 November 2025 over 20.1 kg of cannabis resin found in a mother's suitcase. The mother received two years and her husband three years of firm prison, with two accomplices given suspended terms and a joint 302,700-euro customs fine.
Arrested 4Sentenced 4Cannabis 20.1 kgPrison 3 years
