Latest news with #LeeAdams
Scottish Sun
11-06-2025
- Scottish Sun
Glut of Brit ‘drug mule' suspects grows after ANOTHER is arrested for ‘smuggling £110k of cannabis' to honeymoon island
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A BRIT who went missing in Mauritius has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling £110,000 worth of cannabis onto the tropical island. Lee Adams, 40, was intercepted as he arrived at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport in the tiny East African country. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Lee Adams (L) was intercepted as he arrived at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport Credit: Facebook 6 It's understood Adams, from Yardley, Birmingham, was behaving suspiciously as he got off the flight from London Gatwick Credit: Facebook 6 Adams, who works for a recruitment agency, failed to convince officials of the true nature of his trip Credit: Facebook It's understood Adams, from Yardley, Birmingham, was behaving suspiciously as he got off the flight from London Gatwick on May 24 and caught the eye of customs officers. And when Adams, who works for a recruitment agency, failed to convince officials of the true nature of his trip, officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) swooped. The officers found 5.75 kilos of cannabis with a street value of £110,000 concealed within his suitcase. According to local news reports Adams, who was confronted with the evidence during an interrogation, admitted his role and was arrested on the spot. Investigators immediately launched a "controlled delivery" operation on the holiday island and two suspected accomplices, both believed to be British, were also arrested. The trio appeared before Mahébourg District Court on drug trafficking charges on May 26. An investigation has been launched and they currently remain in custody. Married Adams had told family and friends back in the UK that he had taken a job doing demolition and security work on Mauritius. But when he failed to make contact with his wife Rebecca he was reported missing in a frantic Facebook post. A source said: 'He knew a friend in Mauritius, with a company paying £4000 a week, he said he couldn't pass it up. I'm one half of the infamous Peru 2 drug mules - this is my warning to Brit tourists & how gangs know EXACTLY who to target 'But then no one heard from him, not even his wife. Rebecca messaged his work pals to see if they'd heard from him and an appeal went out on Facebook. 'It was only then she discovered he'd been arrested when she saw a local news report online.' It's alleged Lee didn't buy his own plane ticket and a source claims another man recruited him for the trip. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are supporting a number of British nationals detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities.' The arrest comes amid a spate of similar drug mule cases - with around 13 Brits currently kept in hellhole jails abroad. Three Brits are facing the death penalty in Bali accused of trafficking more than £300,000 worth of cocaine onto the island. A Brit couple were charged with smuggling £1million of cannabis from Thailand a mere few days ago. While several young women have been arrested trying to smuggle cannabis from Thailand. 6 Brit woman Isabella Daggett was arrested just weeks after relocating to Dubai 6 Brit student Bella May Culley was arrested in Georgia after allegedly carrying drugs into the country from Thailand 6 Brit Charlotte May Lee was arrested in Sri Lanka after allegedly trying to smuggle in drugs In the last couple of months, glam tourist Bella Culley allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia and was locked away in a brutal ex-Soviet prison despite claiming to be pregnant. And former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was then caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka. Young mum, Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage. Separately, two drug-smuggling pals were caught with 35kg of cannabis at the airport after a "shopping trip" to New York. And Isabella Daggett, 21, was arrested just five weeks after she relocated to Dubai from Yorkshire after landing a new job. The Brit woman is rotting inside Dubai's hellhole prison on alleged drug charges fell in with "wrong people at the wrong time", her family has said. Glamorous Sophie Bannister and Levi-April Whalley landed back on UK soil with their suitcases seemingly packed full of shopping. The pair, both 30, were stopped at Birmingham International Airport with more than 35kg of cannabis in their bags. Bannister, now of Cotton Lane, Manchester, was sentenced to 20 months suspended for 18 months, with 30 days rehabilitation activities and 200 hours of unpaid work. Whalley, of Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn, was handed a 16-month sentence suspended for 18 months, with 10 days rehabilitation and 80 hours of unpaid work.
The Sun
11-06-2025
- The Sun
Glut of Brit ‘drug mule' suspects grows after ANOTHER is arrested for ‘smuggling £110k of cannabis' to honeymoon island
A BRIT who went missing in Mauritius has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling £110,000 worth of cannabis onto the tropical island. Lee Adams, 40, was intercepted as he arrived at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport in the tiny East African country. 6 6 6 It's understood Adams, from Yardley, Birmingham, was behaving suspiciously as he got off the flight from London Gatwick on May 24 and caught the eye of customs officers. And when Adams, who works for a recruitment agency, failed to convince officials of the true nature of his trip, officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) swooped. The officers found 5.75 kilos of cannabis with a street value of £110,000 concealed within his suitcase. According to local news reports Adams, who was confronted with the evidence during an interrogation, admitted his role and was arrested on the spot. Investigators immediately launched a "controlled delivery" operation on the holiday island and two suspected accomplices, both believed to be British, were also arrested. The trio appeared before Mahébourg District Court on drug trafficking charges on May 26. An investigation has been launched and they currently remain in custody. Married Adams had told family and friends back in the UK that he had taken a job doing demolition and security work on Mauritius. But when he failed to make contact with his wife Rebecca he was reported missing in a frantic Facebook post. A source said: 'He knew a friend in Mauritius, with a company paying £4000 a week, he said he couldn't pass it up. I'm one half of the infamous Peru 2 drug mules - this is my warning to Brit tourists & how gangs know EXACTLY who to target 'But then no one heard from him, not even his wife. Rebecca messaged his work pals to see if they'd heard from him and an appeal went out on Facebook. 'It was only then she discovered he'd been arrested when she saw a local news report online.' It's alleged Lee didn't buy his own plane ticket and a source claims another man recruited him for the trip. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are supporting a number of British nationals detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities.' The arrest comes amid a spate of similar drug mule cases - with around 13 Brits currently kept in hellhole jails abroad. Three Brits are facing the death penalty in Bali accused of trafficking more than £300,000 worth of cocaine onto the island. A Brit couple were charged with smuggling £1million of cannabis from Thailand a mere few days ago. While several young women have been arrested trying to smuggle cannabis from Thailand. 6 6 In the last couple of months, glam tourist Bella Culley allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia and was locked away in a brutal ex-Soviet prison despite claiming to be pregnant. And former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was then caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka. Young mum, Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage. Separately, two drug-smuggling pals were caught with 35kg of cannabis at the airport after a "shopping trip" to New York. And Isabella Daggett, 21, was arrested just five weeks after she relocated to Dubai from Yorkshire after landing a new job. The Brit woman is rotting inside Dubai's hellhole prison on alleged drug charges fell in with "wrong people at the wrong time", her family has said. Glamorous Sophie Bannister and Levi-April Whalley landed back on UK soil with their suitcases seemingly packed full of shopping. The pair, both 30, were stopped at Birmingham International Airport with more than 35kg of cannabis in their bags. Bannister, now of Cotton Lane, Manchester, was sentenced to 20 months suspended for 18 months, with 30 days rehabilitation activities and 200 hours of unpaid work. Whalley, of Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn, was handed a 16-month sentence suspended for 18 months, with 10 days rehabilitation and 80 hours of unpaid work. Why Brit backpackers are prime targets, Thai cop reveal By Patrick Harrington, Foreign News Reporter Police Lieutenant Colonel Arun Musikim, Deputy Inspector of the Surat Thani province police force, said: 'Cases involving British nationals smuggling cannabis have been around for a while. 'There is a lot of cannabis grown on Thailand's islands in the south because the climate is suitable and it is legal. A lot of gangs are attracted to this. 'There are now various smuggling methods that we have seen. Some carry it themselves, some hire backpackers, and some send it via mail. 'This year, there have been many cases we have intercepted. Most involve British and Malaysian nationals. 'It's easy for British citizens to travel as they can enter Thailand and return to the UK without needing a visa. 'Most of the smugglers are people hired to carry the cannabis, similar to how tourists might smuggle tax-free goods. 'They're usually unemployed individuals from the UK. The gangs offer them flights, pocket money and hotel stays, just to come and travel and take a bag back home with them. 'These people often have poor social standing at home and are looking for ways to earn quick money. They find them through friends or on social media. 'Many will go to festivals or parties while they are here, just like they are having a normal trip abroad. 'They are told that it is easy and they will not be caught. Then the amount the organisers can sell the cannabis for in the UK is much higher than it costs in Thailand. 'Police suspect that there are multiple employers and groups receiving the drugs on the other end. The cannabis then enters the UK market. 'We are being vigilant to ensure there are no routes out of the country.'
The Irish Sun
11-06-2025
- The Irish Sun
Glut of Brit ‘drug mule' suspects grows after ANOTHER is arrested for ‘smuggling £110k of cannabis' to honeymoon island
A BRIT who went missing in Mauritius has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling £110,000 worth of cannabis onto the tropical island. Lee Adams, 40, was intercepted as he arrived at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport in the tiny East African country. Advertisement 6 Lee Adams (L) was intercepted as he arrived at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport Credit: Facebook 6 It's understood Adams, from Yardley, Birmingham, was behaving suspiciously as he got off the flight from London Gatwick Credit: Facebook 6 Adams, who works for a recruitment agency, failed to convince officials of the true nature of his trip Credit: Facebook It's understood Adams, from Yardley, Birmingham, was behaving suspiciously as he got off the flight from London Gatwick on May 24 and caught the eye of customs officers. And when Adams, who works for a recruitment agency, failed to convince officials of the true nature of his trip, officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) swooped. The officers found 5.75 kilos of cannabis with a street value of £110,000 concealed within his suitcase. According to local news reports Adams, who was confronted with the evidence during an interrogation, admitted his role and was arrested on the spot. Advertisement read more news Investigators immediately launched a "controlled delivery" operation on the holiday island and two suspected accomplices, both believed to be British, were also arrested. The trio appeared before Mahébourg District Court on drug trafficking charges on May 26. An investigation has been launched and they currently remain in custody. Married Adams had told family and friends back in the UK that he had taken a job doing demolition and security work on Mauritius. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun But when he failed to make contact with his wife Rebecca he was reported missing in a frantic Facebook post. A source said: 'He knew a friend in Mauritius, with a company paying £4000 a week, he said he couldn't pass it up. I'm one half of the infamous Peru 2 drug mules - this is my warning to Brit tourists & how gangs know EXACTLY who to target 'But then no one heard from him, not even his wife. Rebecca messaged his work pals to see if they'd heard from him and an appeal went out on Facebook. 'It was only then she discovered he'd been arrested when she saw a local news report online.' Advertisement It's alleged Lee didn't buy his own plane ticket and a source claims another man recruited him for the trip. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are supporting a number of British nationals detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities.' The arrest comes amid a spate of similar drug mule cases - with around 13 Brits currently kept in hellhole jails abroad. Three Brits are Advertisement A Brit couple were While several young women have been arrested trying to smuggle cannabis from Thailand. 6 Brit woman Isabella Daggett was arrested just weeks after relocating to Dubai 6 Brit student Bella May Culley was arrested in Georgia after allegedly carrying drugs into the country from Thailand Advertisement 6 Brit Charlotte May Lee was arrested in Sri Lanka after allegedly trying to smuggle in drugs In the last couple of months, And former air stewardess Young mum, Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, , was detained at Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage. Advertisement Separately, two And Isabella Daggett, 21, was from after landing a new job . The Brit woman is family has said. Glamorous Sophie Bannister and Levi-April Whalley landed back on soil with their suitcases seemingly packed full of shopping. Advertisement The pair, both 30, were stopped at with more than 35kg of in their bags. Bannister, now of Cotton Lane, Whalley, of Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn, was handed a 16-month sentence suspended for 18 months, with 10 days rehabilitation and 80 hours of unpaid work. Why Brit backpackers are prime targets, Thai cop reveal By Police Lieutenant Colonel Arun Musikim, Deputy Inspector of the Surat Thani province police force, said: 'Cases involving British nationals smuggling cannabis have been around for a while. 'There is a lot of cannabis grown on Thailand's islands in the south because the climate is suitable and it is legal. A lot of gangs are attracted to this. 'There are now various smuggling methods that we have seen. Some carry it themselves, some hire backpackers, and some send it via mail. 'This year, there have been many cases we have intercepted. Most involve British and Malaysian nationals. 'It's easy for British citizens to travel as they can enter Thailand and return to the UK without needing a visa. 'Most of the smugglers are people hired to carry the cannabis, similar to how tourists might smuggle tax-free goods. 'They're usually unemployed individuals from the UK. The gangs offer them flights, pocket money and hotel stays, just to come and travel and take a bag back home with them. 'These people often have poor social standing at home and are looking for ways to earn quick money. They find them through friends or on social media. 'Many will go to festivals or parties while they are here, just like they are having a normal trip abroad. 'They are told that it is easy and they will not be caught. Then the amount the organisers can sell the cannabis for in the UK is much higher than it costs in Thailand. 'Police suspect that there are multiple employers and groups receiving the drugs on the other end. The cannabis then enters the UK market. 'We are being vigilant to ensure there are no routes out of the country.'
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Charles Strouse obituary
Like his fellow Broadway composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse, who has died aged 96, had a classical music education. But his breakthrough hit – for which he won his first Tony award – with lyrics by his early career collaborator, Lee Adams, was Bye Bye Birdie (1960), a satirical take on the new teenage culture of rock'n'roll, with reference to the kerfuffle surrounding Elvis Presley's call up to the US army. His biggest hit of all, though, and the first without lyrics by Adams, was the uplifting Depression-era musical Annie (1977), based on the cartoon strip little orphan girl melting the heart of billionaire Daddy Warbucks. The show ran on Broadway for over 2,300 performances, and for more than three-and-a-half years at the Victoria Palace in London, and was made into a film in 1982. Mike Nichols's production of Annie had lyrics (and direction) by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan. Strouse's punchy, irresistible score, for which he won his third Tony award, included several songs that have entered the musical theatre pantheon: Annie's indomitably optimistic Tomorrow, the upbeat, rhythmic orphanage lament It's the Hard-Knock Life (later sampled by Jay-Z for a single in 1998) and the equally upbeat suggestion that You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile, an appropriate placebo – in musical theatre terms, at least – for child poverty and misery. The whole was feelgood to an extent that would be unbearable without Strouse's sly, plangently melodic, beautifully crafted songs and the occasional high-quality belter. As in the standout song of Bye Bye Birdie (the 'Elvis' hero was named Conrad Birdie, played on the London stage in 1961 by Marty Wilde), Put on a Happy Face (sung by Birdie's promoter and played on Broadway and in the 1963 movie by Dick Van Dyke), Strouse operated in a pre-Sondheim non-ironic world of musical theatre escapism. Birdie won him his first Tony. He was born in New York, growing up on the Upper West Side, the son of Ira Strouse, a travelling salesman, and his wife, Ethel (nee Newman), and was educated at a Manhattan prep school, Townsend Harris Hall in the city, and the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York, graduating in 1947. He won two scholarships to the Tanglewood summer festival and music centre in Massachusetts, where he studied with Aaron Copland. Copland then arranged a further scholarship for him with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Although he wrote many orchestral works, including a piano concerto and an opera for children, Nightingale (seen at the Lyric Hammersmith in London in 1982, with Sarah Brightman, fresh from Cats, delivering an astonishing vocal performance of coloratura trills and soaring melodic lines) based on a moral fable by Hans Christian Andersen, he found his musical theatre groove after meeting Adams at a New York party in 1949. The duo started by writing songs for summer revues in the lakeside resorts of the Adirondacks and developed this work through the 50s in off-Broadway revues and cabarets with writers including Neil Simon, Vernon Duke and Ogden Nash. Their second musical, All American (1962), was a flop, though it contained a poignant, lyrical ballad about lost love, Once Upon a Time, which was recorded by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett and sung by Bob Dylan among others. The show had a book by Mel Brooks, who took from the debacle the germ of an idea for an intentionally disastrous musical that is a fluke triumph. His movie masterpiece The Producers, containing the calculatedly tasteless-as-possible hit show Springtime for Hitler, appeared in 1967. After Annie, there was a string of flops and a misguided sequel to the first hit. Bring Back Birdie (1981) closed after just four performances on Broadway. It should have been called 'Bye Bye, Bye Bye Birdie'. Similarly, a famous flop with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, Dance a Little Closer (1983), shuttered on the same night as it opened, having been dubbed during previews 'Close a Little Sooner'. That followed on the heels of another failure, Charlie and Algernon (1980, lyrics by David Rogers) which was presented – as Flowers for Algernon – in the West End by the producer Michael White in the previous year. It lasted barely three weeks at the Queen's (now Sondheim). Despite these setbacks, Strouse's reputation remained, and remains, secure. He and Adams provided Sammy Davis Jr with a spectacular leading role as a prize-fighting boxer escaping from the Harlem ghetto in Golden Boy (1964) – best song, This Is the Life – directed by Arthur Penn and based on a 1937 play by Clifford Odets. It ran for nearly two years on Broadway and was the first musical produced at the London Palladium (in 1968) when Davis Jr reprised the role for a three-month run. In 1965, Strouse provided a clever, quasi-rocky score for Hal Prince's production of It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman! (lyrics by Adams, book by David Newman and the film director Robert Benton – who later wrote the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie). And in 1970, Lauren Bacall headed the duo's Applause, accurately based on the movie All About Eve, with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for which Strouse won his second Tony. Bacall was younger and more supple as Margo Channing than Bette Davis in the movie, and in London, at the Her (now His) Majesty's in 1972, the show had a solid 11-month run with Angela Richards superb as the aspirant, dethroning lead Eve Harrington. In the same year, in London, Strouse and Adams launched a spectacular musical starring Polly James as Queen Victoria, I and Albert, at the Piccadilly, directed by John Schlesinger, but this was a seriously skewed fiasco, managing just 120 performances, though Adams remains proud of his lyrics. The New York Times critic Frank Rich averred that Strouse often wrote rousing scores for frail shows, citing both Rags (1986) – lyrics by Rogers, book by Joseph Stein, librettist of Fiddler on the Roof – about Jewish immigrants in early 20th-century New York, starring the opera singer Teresa Stratas; and the misfired Nick & Nora (1991), based on the sleuthing married couple in Dashiel Hammett's novel The Thin Man, lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr, book by Arthur Laurents. The first lasted four performances, the second – also known as 'Nick & Snora' – doubled up with just nine. Strouse wrote several notable film scores: for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), There Was a Crooked Man (1970), starring Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas, and Sidney Lumet's Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), which featured a hilarious romantic punch-up in a department store between Ali MacGraw and her feckless millionaire lover, played by the hangdog comedian Alan King. As Lerner nearly once observed, the lyrics of any show tune are only as good as the music lets them be, and for one glorious decade the lyrics of Adams flourished thanks to Strouse, who subsequently flattered the efforts of less ideal creative partners. Strouse is right up there with the best of the old Broadway musical theatre greats before Sondheim broadened the genre's horizons while, according to the critic Mark Steyn, reducing the popular audience to a sophisticated metropolitan elite. He married the actor and choreographer Barbara Simon in 1962; she died in 2023. He is survived by their four children, Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria and William, and by eight grandchildren. Charles Louis Strouse, composer, born 7 June 1928; died 15 May 2025
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Charles Strouse, Tony award-winning composer of Annie, dies aged 96
The composer Charles Strouse, a three-time Tony award-winner whose hits included Annie, has died at the age of 96. His death at home in New York on Thursday was announced by his four children. Over the course of a long and illustrious career, Strouse composed music for the Broadway shows Bye Bye Birdie, Golden Boy, Applause, Rags and Nick & Nora. But he was perhaps best known for his score for Annie which opened in New York in 1977 and ran for almost six years. The story of the plucky red-headed orphan featured evergreen songs (with lyrics by Martin Charnin) including Tomorrow, You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile and It's the Hard-Knock Life, which was sampled by Jay-Z in a 1998 single. Annie received seven Tony awards, including best musical and best original score, and won the Grammy for best cast show album. It was adapted as a film in 1982. Strouse's other Tony award-winners were the 1960 comedy Bye Bye Birdie and 1970's Applause (based on the film All About Eve); both shows had lyrics by his regular collaborator Lee Adams. In 1996, the pair won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding original music and lyrics for the song Let's Settle Down from a TV film adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie, which follows a rock'n'roll singer drafted into the army. Strouse was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. He also worked in film, incorporating banjos into the score for Bonnie and Clyde, and television, writing the theme music for the long-running sitcom All in the Family. Pop songs (including the hit Born Too Late written with Fred Tobias), revues, opera, chamber music and a range of classical pieces were also composed by the industrious and prolific Strouse. His Concerto America was written to commemorate the September 11 terrorist attacks. Born on 7 June 1928, he grew up in New York and graduated from its Eastman School of Music in 1947. He later studied under Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. In 1964 he married the dancer and choreographer Barbara Siman; they were married for almost 60 years until her death in 2023. His children, Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria and William, survive him. Strouse reflected on his career in the 2008 memoir Put on a Happy Face, named after one of his songs for Bye Bye Birdie. 'The way a fine tailor feels about his material, I feel about musical notes,' he said the following year.
