THIS is the moment an alleged Brit drug mule couple were arrested carrying £280,000 worth of cannabis back to the UK.
Video footage taken by Turkish customs officers shows Holly Cooper and Taylor Johnson being ordered to remove their bags from a luggage carousel.
The 20-year-olds were then taken to a custody suite in the international arrivals area of Istanbul airport where investigators checked their luggage.
As the glum-faced pair looked on – with Holly holding a pink neck pillow –officers found 17 black, vacuum-packed bags containing 19.2kg of cannabis.
They were then separated and placed in holding cells before being formally arrested at a court and thrown in jail where they are awaiting a trial which could see them jailed for 30 years.
A source said: “Seventeen black vacuum-sealed bags containing green plant fragments, which, based on their odour and colour, are suspected to be the narcotic substance cannabis, were detected.”
The 20-year-olds were then taken to a custody suite in the international arrivals area of Istanbul airport where investigators checked their luggage.
As the glum-faced pair looked on – with Holly holding a pink neck pillow –officers found 17 black, vacuum-packed bags containing 19.2kg of cannabis.
They were then separated and placed in holding cells before being formally arrested at a court and thrown in jail where they are awaiting a trial which could see them jailed for 30 years.
A source said: “Seventeen black vacuum-sealed bags containing green plant fragments, which, based on their odour and colour, are suspected to be the narcotic substance cannabis, were detected.”
Holly, of Coseley, and Taylor, of Wednesbury, both West Midlands, flew to Thailand for a holiday last month.
Instead of flying directly home from Bangkok to London on April 26, they caught a flight via Istanbul as it was cheaper.
Around 2pm they boarded Turkish Airlines flight TK1435 to London at Gate B5, but as they were settling down in their seats ready for take-off investigators were onto them.
A source said: “As a result of risk analysis conducted by the Customs Intelligence Directorate at Istanbul Airport a passenger with a UK passport was identified as a suspect.”
Officers swooped on the plane and ordered the pair off. They were then taken to a luggage carousel and ordered to collect their bags.
Taylor, wearing a white t-shirt and black trousers and carrying a blue neck pillow, picked up his black suitcase while Holly, dressed all in black, collected her pink case.
They were then taken to an office where Holly was told to open her bag. An officer wearing blue protective gloves firstly emptied her clothes out before checking the lining, but found nothing.
A second officer opened Taylor’s 24kg case and immediately found a large number of black, vacuum-packed bags with a grey towel lying over them.
Using a knife he opened one to find a green plant substance that was suspected to be cannabis which was confirmed by an initial test.
Shortly after they were taken away and placed in separate holding cells. They are now being held in separate jails and have not seen each other since they were formally arrested.
Prosecutors are now building a case against them and fingerprint and forensic experts are trawling over all 17 bags of the drugs to check who has handled them. Their phones have also been seized and are now being checked.
According to a family friend, Taylor has already been beaten up in his overcrowded jail.
Their families back home are both said to be “in bits” at the Midnight Express-style horror which their children now find themselves in.
The 1978 hit movie featured a student who was thrown in a Turkish hell-hole prison after trying to smuggle drugs out of the country.
Turkey has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and if Holly and Taylor are convicted they face a minimum sentence of ten years and possibly as long as 30.
A family friend insisted they were “good kids” who had been groomed by an international trafficking gang to bring back the drugs.
The friend said: “They are really not bad kids. I have seen Taylor grow up. He’s a good, happy kid.
“Okay, they’ve done something stupid this time, but everyone makes mistakes.
“They’ve been recruited and groomed by bigger criminals and exploited by them.”
A GoFundMe appeal had been launched by friends to raise £4,000 to cover legal fees but after reaching just over £400 it was deleted following a public backlash.
The couple are just the latest in a string of Brits who have found themselves at the centre of drugs probes after being busted at airports.
Kim Hall, 29, of Middlesbrough, was facing 60 years in jail in Chicago after she was stopped at the city’s O’Hare airport in August 2024 with £15m of cocaine in her suitcases.
She later told how British drug dealers had forced her to bring them back from a holiday in Mexico and is due to be released two years into her sentence after striking a plea deal.
And Bella Culley, 19, of Billingham, Teesside, was arrested in Georgia in May 2025 after landing on a flight from Thailand.
