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Gambia News : Drug smuggler caught 'groomed in Sussex'

The father of a woman jailed for trying to smuggle cocaine worth £250,000 into the UK from The Gambia has claimed that criminal drugs gangs are targeting Sussex teenagers.

Carly Plunkett, 19, of Eastbourne, was arrested at Gatwick Airport with 1.5k of cocaine in her suitcase, and jailed for five-and-a-half years last week.

Her father John claimed she was groomed by smugglers before being sent to West Africa as a drugs' mule.

He had thought she was on holiday in Tenerife, but she was in the Gambia.

Mr Plunkett said the phone call telling him that his daughter had been caught with a suitcase full of cocaine had come completely out of the blue.

"You've just got to watch them 24/7 - I don't know what else you can do.

"Was there more I could've done? Should I have seen more? But there was no sign of drugs or being involved in drugs," he said.

Mr Plunkett said before heading off on holiday, he had noticed his daughter had new friends, more money, and was being picked up in an expensive car.

He believes that criminal gangs who persuade youngsters to become drug mules are increasingly moving away from the big cities to places like Eastbourne.