Ayasha Littlejohn jailed for transporting cannabis

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Ayasha Littlejohn was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 10 April 2024. She pleaded guilty to possessing drugs for sale or supply. The proceedings were reported on 10 April 2024.

Littlejohn, then 22 and pregnant, was stopped at Dublin Airport after customs officers became suspicious about her luggage. She was travelling from New York through Dublin to Manchester. Her two suitcases contained 22.6kg of cannabis herb valued at €453,640, which the court heard was intended for the UK.

Littlejohn told gardaí that a man she had met in London became threatening when she said she wanted to go home because she was ill, saying he knew where her parents lived. The court heard that he gave her money for flights to New York and that she was to be paid €10,000 to transport the suitcases. Littlejohn said she did not know what was in them and had not opened them. Her defence counsel, James Dwyer SC, said she had a gut feeling about the baggage and had been manipulated into the offence.

Judge Nolan described Littlejohn as naive but said she had been put upon by third parties. He said she had led a blameless life until the offence and was unlikely to reoffend. The sentence was backdated to 26 October, when she entered custody.