Mum, 27, showed Manchester Airport officers holiday photos - they immediately arrested her when they scrolled through

A woman who secreted almost 100 pellets of cocaine inside and outside her body inadvertently showed Border Force officers pictures of the drug on her phone.

Larissa Lins, 27, had been stopped at Manchester Airport after flying from Brazil. She claimed she had come to the UK to ‘research nice places’ having flown through France and Portugal previously.

Denying she had brought anything illegal into the country, she showed officers pictures of her time in France. However, as they scrolled, they came across a picture of the ‘white pellets’ and further searches revealed that Lins had ingested, secreted and concealed a kilo of the drug both internally and externally.

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After pleading guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A drug, yesterday (October 17) she was jailed and told she will ‘almost inevitably’ be deported back to Brazil after serving 40 percent of her sentence.

Prosecuting, David Toal said that on August 24 this year, Lins had flown from Sao Paulo to Manchester via France and Portugal, with just a small pink cabin bag.

She was spoken to by Border Force officers via a Portuguese interpreter, and said this was the first time visiting the country. She added that she came to the UK to ‘walk around and research nice places’.

Lins said she had packed her suitcase herself and said she had not brought anything illegal into the UK.

“She volunteered her phone to show officers images she had taken in France, and whilst looking through officers saw images of white pellets, which were believed to be cocaine,” Mr Toal said.

“The defendant was arrested, and she told officers she had pellets of cocaine inserted inside her body since the previous day. She was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital where, at various stages, she passed all of the internal pellets.”

Officers conducted a further search of Lins, and found further pellets hidden within the lining of her bra. In total 99 pellets were seized weighing a total of 1.1 kilos with packaging, and 923 grams without.

The wholesale price for that amount of the class A drug was estimated to be around £30,000, and the street value was in the region of £72,000, the court heard.

Lins was arrested and interviewed in which she admitted swallowing 100 pellets before flying to France, and spent the next three days passing them before returning them to another person.

The day before flying to Manchester she admitted swallowing ten more and inserting further pellets internally whilst her ‘cousin’ placed some more inside her bra. She said would have received the equivalent of £1,400 in Brazilian real. She was said to have no previous convictions in the UK or in her native Brazil.

Laura Broome, mitigating, said her client was in a ‘state of sheer desperation’.

“That desperation was exploited,” she said. “She tells me she was instructed how to swallow, conceal and insert the pellets. Had any of those burst, she could have died.”

The sentencing judge, Patrick Field KC, said Lins was taking a risk with her safety and liberty, which ‘emphasised her state of mind’.

“It almost demonstrates the little regard those above her had for her safety,” Ms Broome agreed.

She said the mum of four young children was genuinely remorseful and was ‘desperate’ to return home. Ms Broome added that she had been recruited through coercion, intimidation and control, and was ‘naive’ with ‘no influence’ on those above her in the chain.

“Once she had realised the seriousness of the situation, she tried to stop her partaking any further, but was told she had no choice,” the barrister said.

Lins, of no fixed abode, was jailed for three years.

“This sort of crime is regarded very seriously in these courts,” Judge Field KC told Lins, who wept throughout.

“There is no doubt you were recruited to carry out the task and you were recruited by organised criminals who were more sophisticated than you and utterly unsympathetic to the risks you were running.

“I have no doubt [that amount of money] was a significant sum to you.”