Canadian national women’s volleyball player jailed for international pot smuggling

A professional volleyball player who competed internationally on Canada’s women’s team has been jailed in Britain after arriving at a London airport with a suitcase full of vacuum-sealed cannabis.

U.K. border agents found Raekelle Powell, 22, carrying a suitcase jam-packed with 19 kilograms of cannabis after landing at Heathrow airport on a flight from Toronto on Sept. 20, Britain’s National Crime Agency said.

When she was asked about it, she said she was paid $300 to carry the suitcase. The drugs had an estimated street value in Britain of more than a million dollars.

Powell quickly pleaded guilty in court and last week she was sentenced to 15 months in jail at Isleworth Crown Court in London.

British authorities said Powell is from Toronto. She went to high school in Brampton.

She is an outside hitter in volleyball and was on Canada’s under-19 indoor volleyball team that took a silver medal at the NORCECA Championship in 2018, upsetting a favoured Cuba and finishing second to the United States. NORCECA stands for the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation.

Powell was arrested during a swarm of cannabis crossing attempts in London.

Eleven people were charged for attempting to smuggle 300 kilos of cannabis within two days at Heathrow and Gatwick, London’s two busiest airports.