A Londonderry mum-of-two has been jailed for two years after being caught smuggling almost £50,000 of cocaine and cannabis into Northern Ireland from Amsterdam.

Leanne Barber (27) also agreed to spend a further 18 months on probation when she appeared at Antrim Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, relating to charges arising from July 12 2007, when Customs officers stopped her as she disembarked off a flight from the Netherlands.

The court heard they uncovered three kilos of herbal cannabis hidden in her suitcase.

When challenged Barber, from Rosskeen Park in Derry, initially claimed: “That's the grass my dad cut in the back garden yesterday.”

But the court heard the material tested positive for cannabis in a field test.

Prosecuting lawyer Derval McGuigan said when Barber was giving a urine sample, officers noticed that a knotted condom fell out of her body cavity, adding that it had been filled with a white powder which tested positive for cocaine in the field test.

She told the court when Barber was taken to hospital and X-rayed, other packages were noted to still be inside her and that eventually, a total of five knotted condoms were removed from her.

The lawyer said the total weight of the class A cocaine was 80.4g and with a 54% purity, that would equate to an estimated street value of around £16,000.

Ms McGuigan added that officers had estimated the three kilos of herbal cannabis to be worth around £30,000, giving a total of £46,000 worth of drugs.

Arrested and interviewed, Barber admittted that she had travelled to Amsterdam up to six times in the previous four months and claimed that on this occasion, she had been under duress to bring drugs back after being threatened by a man she refused to name.

She later pleaded guilty to knowingly importing both class A and C drugs on July 12 2007.

Defence QC David Hopley asked the court to show mercy to the mother-of-two, claiming that at the time of the incident, “she was at a very vulnerable stage in her life and was exploited and used by more sinister elements not before this court”.

Jailing Barber, Judge Philip Babington said she had known “exactly what she was doing” in acting as a courier and had known how to hide the drugs both in her case and inside her own body “at no small risk to herself”.