Brit, 28, facing 60 years in US prison for 'trying to smuggle £3.5m of cocaine from Mexico'

Kim Hall, 28, was caught with 43kg of cocaine in her suitcases at Chicago’s O’Hare airport - where she was due to get on her connecting flight home to Manchester

A young Brit faces 60 years behind bars in the US after allegedly smuggling £3.5m worth of cocaine in her suitcases from Mexico.

Kim Hall, 28, was caught in the act at Chicago’s O’Hare airport where she was due to get on her connecting flight home to Manchester. Homeland Security investigators detained the beautician after discovering 43kg of cocaine packed in two suitcases.

But Kim claims two men forced her to smuggle the drugs after offering her a free trip to Cancun and then threatening her once she arrived. Her family back home in the UK say “the only thing she's guilty of is being stupid and being naive”.

Her dad John, 59, said she had met the men, who claimed they were property developers, on an earlier trip to Portugal. They invited her to stay with them and then offered her a free holiday, but allegedly coerced her taking two suitcases home which she claims they had packed, and that she thought contained $250,000 in cash.

John told The Sun: “She's not a drug smuggler. She was told that it would be money she was carrying. They got her phone and threatened her family and that’s why she did it. She'd been to Portugal with a friend and met people over there who contacted her when she was back saying they were into real estate in Mexico and she could go for a free holiday.

“Her friend declined but she said she would go. She's never been into trouble, nothing at all. She’s had a good upbringing and has always worked for her money. The only thing she's guilty of is being stupid and being naive.”

Kim, from Middlesbrough, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver following her arrest in August. The sheer volume of drugs seized means the 28-year-old finds herself facing one of the harshest sentences, with Class X Felonies typically carrying 15-60 years in prison.

She is now being held in Chicago and is awaiting trial, which could commence a year from now. Her family have so far forked out £28,000 for a local attorney, and say they're distressed about her physical and mental well-being.

John added: “For the first few weeks, you couldn't speak to her for the tears. She said: ‘You don't understand what they were threatening me with’. That's as much as we can get out of her. She's petrified. Without a shadow of a doubt she was forced into carrying this stuff back. And I'm not just saying that to try and protect my daughter. I'm telling you that as a father who knows a daughter inside out.”

A Cook County court spokeswoman said: “Her next appearance is on November 13.”