Lino Neil, 18, was arrested at Doha airport after he was caught with cannabis in his suitcase while travelling from Thailand to Dublin. He rang home in a state of terror upon realising he could be detained for years
A Scottish teenager accused of acting as a drug courier spent Christmas in a Qatari prison with his worried mum thousands of miles away.
Champion fisherman Lino Neil, 18, spent Christmas in a Doha cell crammed with 80 other men before being moved to the city’s Central Prison. He alleges he was coerced into transporting a suitcase filled with cannabis from Thailand to Dublin – but was apprehended in Doha, where drug offences are not taken lightly.
The teen’s family, hailing from Drymen, near Stirling, recounted how he rang home in a state of terror upon realising he could be detained for years in the Gulf nation. News of his arrest at Hamad International Airport on 21 November comes amidst a significant surge in the use of drug mules from Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
Earlier this week, we highlighted Beki Wright, head of the National Crime Agency’s Borders Threat Team, warning that unsuspecting young Brits were being enticed by gangs promising lavish holidays in exchange for transporting “packages”, reports the Daily Record.
Lino’s mother Nicola, 49, believes her son – a celebrated salmon angler – seems to have been manipulated by criminals. Nicola stated: “Lino has just turned 18 a month ago he’s totally distraught, which is the way we’re all feeling.
“They put him in the jail in Qatar Airport and he’s had so little food to eat that he’s lost a lot of weight. He is terrified. When I spoke to him the other day he was frantic and said he was going to take his own life and I can’t take the thought of that.”
She continued: “I don’t know how he got into this mess but I know he was terrified and he phoned me a couple of weeks before he was due to fly home and told me he was terrified.”
Nicola expressed hope that the Qatari authorities would recognise he was coerced into it. She continued: “He is just a teenage boy, a baby, and he has no contacts in Thailand and he’d have no way of setting up any kind of drug deal.”
The family are facing legal expenses for a criminal trial in Doha totalling up to £40,000 and have already been compelled to raise approximately £2500 to pay a solicitor in advance for his initial court appearance.
Nicola revealed her own mental health had been devastated by her son’s ordeal. She explained: “I’ve been a mess and prescribed medication just to keep me from having a breakdown. I’ve hardly slept a wink I just need him home.”
Lino is due to appear in court on January 27, where he will argue that a British ex-pat coerced him into carrying the substantial amount of cannabis. Lino’s brother Robbie, 28, revealed he had jetted out to Thailand for a break with his girlfriend after putting money aside.
He said: “He phoned me and I agreed to pick him up from Cairnryan to get him home for Christmas. But he never arrived off the plane and it was only later that I was told that he had been arrested. When he managed to get a phone and call me he said he’d been set up. I believe he’d been in Phuket and flown out via Bangkok, stopping in Doha. There had been no problem with his baggage getting from Thailand to Doha.
“He was taken into a room by police in Doha and they said they’d found stuff in his bag. They gave him the impression that he would not be detained, that they would just deport him. But that isn’t what panned out. He was put in a cell with 80 other guys at the airport and that was terrifying.”
Robbie explained that the British Embassy in Doha had managed to visit Lino on Wednesday after he’d been moved to the city’s Central Prison, where drug smugglers are typically housed. He said: “The new prison had a smaller cell, with him and just a couple of other guys, and I think that settled him down a bit because he’d been terrified where he was.”
Robbie says it is absurd to suggest he could orchestrate a drug deal. He stated: “He’s just a wee laddie who knows more about fishing than anything else. We just need to get him home.”
