Chef at plush five-star London hotel is jailed for trying to smuggle £2,300 of party drugs into Creamfields festival
A HOTEL chef has been jailed for trying to smuggle £2,300 of party drugs into a music festival.
Catarina Melo, 23, had MDMA, mcat and ketamine to give to a dealer in exchange for cash to fund her weekend.
But the £40,000-a-year sous chef at the five-star Intercontinental London Park Lane Hotel was detained when her haul was detected by sniffer dogs at Creamfields in Cheshire in August.
It happened on the same day of the festival that Lucy George, 25, of Neath, South Wales, took an MDMA pill which led to her death from multiple organ failure.
Jailing her for 30 months at Chester crown court, Judge Patrick Thompson, said: “Creamfields is plagued by drugs because those who smuggle drugs expect large rewards because they are at a premium.
“In 2022, £89,000 worth of drugs were seized by police from suspected suppliers at the festival whilst in the amnesty bins, there was £178,990 worth of drugs.
“But most importantly, in 2022, the year you were taking MDMA into the event, a 25-year-old female took MDMA on the Friday and passed away the following Tuesday from multiple organ failure.
“That’s why this offence is viewed so seriously by the courts.
“You walked past the clear signage warning you about what you must expect if you smuggle drugs in and you also walked past the amnesty bins.
“It seems to me you showed some determination to get drugs into the festival.”
Portuguese Melo’s drugs were among £270,000 of drugs seized or voluntarily given up at the event.