'What's your handicap?' Drug mule with £83,000 cocaine hidden in golf clubs is caught out by airport staff

Kayti Dryer has been jailed for four years after attempting to smuggle £83,000 of cocaine inside her golf clubs

You would expect someone who takes a set of golf clubs on holiday to have a reasonable understanding of the game.

But when suspicious Customs officials asked Kayti Dryer what her handicap was, she apparently thought they were questioning her about a disability.

When she was unable to answer, they seized the clubs and found £83,000 worth of cocaine hidden inside the shafts.



Yesterday the 23-year-old was starting a four-year prison sentence after admitting smuggling the drugs.

Dryer was questioned after her golf bag was X-rayed at Manchester Airport when she got off a flight from the Caribbean in April. She claimed to have taken the clubs on holiday to Montego Bay in Jamaica.

An airport source said: 'When asked about her handicap, she looked blank and asked them to repeat the question. They asked her again, she gave no response.

'She clearly did not know what they were talking about and had no idea it was even a golfing term. It appeared as if she thought they were asking her if she had a disability.'



Traces of cocaine were revealed when Customs officers swabbed her luggage, and when they cut the clubs into pieces they found a 1kg stash.

Dryer, who is unemployed and from Lewes in East Sussex, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court.

Mike O'Grady, of HM Revenue & Customs, said it immediately became obvious that Dryer had something to hide.

'When Dryer was asked questions about golf, it was clear that she was totally unfamiliar with the game and she had no legitimate reason for travelling with the sports equipment,' he said.



Cocaine was concealed in the shafts of golf clubs carried by Dryer between Jamaica and Manchester Airport

Airport security quizzed Dryer and found the cocaine inside her bag after she failed to answer simple questions about the sport

'This is a serious offence and I would strongly encourage anyone with information relating to drug smuggling to contact us.



'We will take every action to detect, seize and bring those smuggling drugs into the country before the courts.'



Earlier this year former England cricketer Chris Lewis was jailed for 13 years for smuggling cocaine worth £140,000 into Britain from the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

The 41-year-old and a friend, basketball player Chad Kirnon, hid the liquid form of the drug in tins of fruit in a kit bag.

Customs officers have warned that drugs gangs may target sportsmen and women as potential 'mules' in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics in London.



Experts say traffickers are increasingly using routes from West Africa and Eastern Europe as a result of successful anti-smuggling operations in the Caribbean.