Police probe how woman jailed in Egypt got hold of prescription drugs

Family photo of Laura Plummer from Hull, who is being held in an Egyptian jail.

Laura Plummer, 33, from Hull, was sentenced to three years in prison for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country.

The shop worker told the court she had got the tablets for her Egyptian partner, Omar Caboo, who suffers from severe back pain, and she had no idea what she was doing was wrong.

She said she obtained the drugs, which were in her suitcase, from a friend in the UK.

This afternoon Humberside Police said they were “reviewing the circumstances” into how Laura Plummer came to have the Tramadol - but clarified that it was not a criminal investigation.

Detective Chief Superintendent Judi Heaton, Head of Crime, said: “We are not carrying out a criminal investigation into any named suspect on the basis of the information we currently have.

“The reason for this is that if someone passes on a subscribed drug, it is not necessarily a criminal act but it is a civil offence under the Medicines Act.”

Ms Plummer was arrested at Hurghada airport on October 9 when she flew into the Red Sea resort.

It is thought she will appeal against her sentence and supporters have said the Tramadol was not hidden in her luggage.

It was reported earlier this week that the 33-year-old had been sent to Cairo to start her sentence in the women’s wing of the notorious Al Qanater jail, where prisoners have reportedly been attacked by guards with cattle prods.

In 2014 human rights groups filed a joint complaint to the state prosecutor calling for an investigation into female prisoners who complained they had been subject to torture and physical and sexual abuse,

After a surge in abuse among Egyptians, possessing Tramadol without a prescription was made illegal in 2014. It was ranked first among illicit drugs abused in Egypt the following year, taken by just over 40 percent of drug users.