X-ray missed 'drug mule' cocaine

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Customs officers will be given more training after a drug smuggler who got through airport security died when cocaine packets burst in her stomach.

Nicola Last, 40, travelled to Trinidad to be a so-called "drugs mule," but died after she returned to the UK.

An inquest at Cardiff heard how an X-ray scanner used to spot drugs at London's Heathrow Airport could be difficult for staff to interpret.

A narrative verdict was recorded on Ms Last, of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

The inquest heard how following an investigation into her death, recommendations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had been made for customs staff across the UK to be given additional training in the use of equipment.

A customs technology specialist told the inquest how results from the X-ray scanner used at Heathrow could to be difficult to interpret and staff could become careless if the machines were not used often.

Lee Haxall said he would have recognised the packages in her stomach, and new software meant staff were now shown an enhanced scan.

Sebastian Stephen and David Case had previous drugs convictions

Senior customs officer Brian Johnson said staff at Heathrow were used to dealing with drugs mules and caught up to 500 a year, but were now being given extra training.

Coroner Mary Hassell expressed her sympathy with Ms Last's father, Douglas, and mother, Pat, who were in court for the hearing.

But she said the cocaine had damaged Ms Last in a way that it might have damaged others if it had been successfully smuggled and sold on the streets.

Last week, two men were jailed at Cardiff Crown Court following her death.

Stopped and searched

Her travel companion David Case, 44, and Sebastian Stephen, 40, were found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine and evade duty.

Case was jailed for 10 years and Stephen, also of Cardiff, for 12 years.

The court had heard Ms Last had swallowed 34 bags of cocaine - worth £50,000 - before returning from the Caribbean island with Case.

She had been stopped and searched at Heathrow, but no drugs were found and she returned to her home in September last year.

The mother-of-one collapsed and died the following day at Llandough Hospital, near Penarth.

The bags of cocaine were found in her stomach with "numerous breakages".

Case and Stephen both denied drugs conspiracy charges but were found guilty by a jury.