Canadian woman who smuggled £750,000 worth of drugs into Northern Ireland sentenced

Border Force officers found two suitcases stuffed with 60 vacuum packed bags containing a total of 27kg of cannabis

A Canadian woman has been jailed for nine months for smuggling more than £750,000 worth of drugs into Northern Ireland. Xaena Bursey-Duff, with a bail address at Wolseley Street in south Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to the illegal importation of cannabis. On Friday Belfast Crown Court heard on August 17, 2024, the 21-year-old arrived at Belfast City Airport after transferring from a flight from Heathrow. She had earlier travelled to London from Calgary in Canada. It was the prosecution case that Border Force officers stopped Bursey-Duff and searched her two suitcases. Inside officers found 60 vacuum packed bags containing a total of 27 kilos of cannabis with a street value of in excess of three quarters of a million pounds. She was subsequently arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency and charged with the importation of a Class B controlled drug. Belfast Crown Court heard that during interview she denied knowing she was bringing drugs into Northern Ireland. She claimed she didn’t have the keys to the case but they were later found in her hand luggage.

She alleged the suit cases were not hers and she travelled to Northern Ireland with no personal belongings. The defendant told investigators that she bought vapes in Calgary from a man called ‘Bruce’ and when she mentioned visiting Ireland he asked her to bring something over for him and drop them off at a hotel in Belfast. Messages on her phone revealed that she was to receive 10,000 Canadian dollars for transporting the suitcases to Northern Ireland. Defence barrister Michael Forde said Bursey-Duff was at the time “vulnerable and had been exploited by others”. He added that her father had travelled to Belfast for the court hearing and he would take her back to Canada, urging the court to impose a suspended sentence. Mr Forde said the defendant had no intention of ever returning to Northern Ireland and was hopeful of obtaining work on her return to Canada. Passing sentence, Judge Patrick Lynch KC said the defendant had been “literally caught red-handed” importing the drugs. The Probation Board assessed the defendant as a high likelihood of reoffending but she did not pose a danger to the public. “This was a significant quantity of drugs, 27 kilograms, with a street value of in excess of £750,000. “I accept that the defendant was not to benefit directly from the sums of money we are talking about here but she did have an expectation of receiving 10,000 Canadian dollars which is not an insignificant sum. “She had to know what she was doing and that she was importing drugs to Northern Ireland,” added Judge Lynch.

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