Tourists jailed for drugs

By Charlie Charalambous

FOUR British tourists were yesterday jailed for one month in Cyprus after pleading guilty to possessing a small quantity of hard drugs.

The British holidaymakers — three men and a woman — are the latest victims of the Cyprus police’s zero tolerance policy in popular tourist resorts like Ayia Napa, where the recreational use of drugs is on the increase.

Britons Jennie Natasha Ling, a 22-year-old drama student from Twickenham, Middlesex, father-of-two Mark Lambie, 28, from north London, Errol Gordon, 34, from Neasden northwest London and father-of-five Joseph Jacobs, 43, also from Neasden were jailed after a Drug squad bust at their Ayia Napa hotel apartments on August 25.

“Possession and use of drugs by foreign tourists in Cyprus has reached disturbing levels and therefore a prison term is unavoidable,” said Larnaca court judge Leonidas Kalogirou yesterday.

The police swoop, following a tip-off, turned up two ecstasy tablets in Ling’s bag, a single ecstasy tablet in Gordon’s wardrobe, an ecstasy tablet and a small sachet of hashish among Jacobs’ personal belongings and half a gramme of cocaine in Lambie’s trouser pocket, the court heard.

The tourists admitted to buying the drugs from a dealer in the holiday resort.

Drug squad officers are trying to track down a narcotics gang who they believe supply illegal substances to UK ravers at wild parties in Ayia Napa.

Over a million British tourists are expected to visit Cyprus this year, most of them are flocking to Ayia Napa’s burgeoning underground club scene dubbed the ‘new Ibiza’.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.