For years, festivals have been hotbeds of illegal drugs that put the lives of innocent children at risk.
Yet in recent years, one festival in particular has garnered an even more worrying reputation.
Every year, electronic dance music festival Creamfields draws 70,000 people to the quaint Cheshire village of Daresbury, which usually has a population of 246 and was the birthplace of Lewis Carroll.
Many youngsters enjoy the rave legally, and as respectfully as you can be when increasing the local population by 28,000 per cent.
But the authorities are becoming increasingly concerned by drug use at the festival, which one judge described as the ‘bane of Cheshire’.
In particular, a vile trend has caught the eye of authorities on the gates. An increasing number of glamorous young women have taken to inserting bags, tied condoms and even Kinder Eggs full of ecstasy pills into their vagina.
If the containers break, a vast quantity of illegal drugs will rush into their bloodstream and could burn the lining of their vaginas.
If they get past the police sniffer dogs and into the festival – lives could be at risk from the deadly drugs they sell.
While some of the women caught by security’s sniffer dogs have claimed they were only bringing in enough for personal use, others have carried in enough to supply to an army of party-lovers.
But one thing many of these drug mules have in common is their decision to smuggle in the illegal substances – including ecstasy, cocaine and ketamine – inside their vaginas.
Molly Breen, 26, was jailed for more than two years because she decided to buy and then smuggle in illegal substances.
Breen, from Coventry, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply MDMA at the festival in 2023.
As the festival-goer went through security, she admitted to officers that she had hidden the Class A substance inside her vagina.
She then removed the drugs, which included 15 small snap bags of 74 tablets worth £1,200 and was turned away from Creamfields and taken to a local police station.
She initially claimed that she had been asked to take the drugs into the festival for someone else but her phone revealed she had asked to buy them from an unknown person months before attending and there was in fact no evidence she was coerced by anyone.
Detective Constable Neil Fleming said: ‘Breen would have had multiple opportunities to rethink what she was doing. Amnesty bins are in place for prohibited items and there is plenty of messaging discouraging people from trying to smuggle in drugs, but despite this, she still chose to go ahead.
‘Cheshire Police links in with event organisers and security staff in a bid to prevent illegal drugs getting into the site, for the safety of all those at the festival.
‘So let this be a warning, while a large majority of Creamfields festivalgoers are respectful, those smuggling drugs into the event will be charged and dealt with by the courts.
‘Do not make the same mistake as Breen, who is now spending time in prison for her foolish and dangerous actions.’
One mother was separated from her children for her decision after the judge felt there was no other choice than a stretch in prison.
Some people insert ecstasy into the anus or vagina from where it is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream.
This is called ‘shafting’ or ‘shelving’.
Ecstasy used in this way can burn the linings of the anus or vagina.
Shafting can also have a strong laxative effect.
Source: The University of New South Wales, Sydney
Mother-of-four Sian Bullock smuggled more than 60 MDMA pills into the music festival inside Kinder eggs and was jailed for three years in May.
The 35-year-old smuggled the Class A drugs inside the small containers as she made her way through security at Creamfields in Daresbury on Saturday, August 26, 2023.
The care support worker, from Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire, admitted to police she had tried to smuggle 64 tablets in by hiding them inside her body in the toys but was rumbled after sniffer dogs alerted security staff.
Police estimated the drugs had a potential value of up to £630 but Bullock claimed she was unaware.
She told officers she didn’t know what the drugs were but admitted she had bought them for personal use.
Despite claiming she did not know what the MDMA pills were, she was charged with possession with intent to supply class A drugs and appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday, May 16 the Liverpool Echo reported.
The mother was sentenced to three years in prison and the judge at her trial said a custodial sentence was the only answer despite Bullock having four small children.
The front line worker is not the only one to have been involved in drug smuggling into the popular festival which sells 70,000 tickets a year.
Lybertie Weaver, 21 at the time of her offence, saw sniffer dogs at the gates to the festival and decided to inform organisers that she had ecstasy tablets wrapped in a Kinder egg and hidden inside her vagina.
The pills were worth roughly £530 and she was rumbled after her nerves got the better of her and she confessed her crime to the police.
Her barrister, Gerald Pachter, said: ‘This is a life-changing day for Miss Weaver.
‘She is nervous and terrified,’ the Warrington Guardian reported.
The mental health care worker, who had been working for a wheelbarrow company supplying tools to the festival, appeared alongside Zara Caller in March, 2020.
The 27-year-old from Kettering admitted possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
As with Weaver, Caller also cooperated with police and told them that she had drugs hidden inside her.
Her barrister, Mark Shanks, said she was being used as ‘a mule’ and ‘panicked’ when she saw the signs at the festival about drugs.
The Northamptonshire-native revealed to the court that she had been paid £150 by a man called Brad for taking the drugs into Creamfields and this payment was also to help cover her weekend costs.
The festival-goer concealed MDMA pills, powder and cocaine in a condom inside her vagina before entering the festival but upon seeing security she froze and told the guards.
She explained that she realised what she was doing was wrong and couldn’t go through with it.
Her barrister said she is ’embarrassed’ by what has happened and showed ‘naivety’.
However, judge Thompson disagreed and said that the text messages clearly showed that she knew what she was doing.
Judge Thompson said: ‘No, there are enough warning banners in place. I’ve seen the text messages, she knew exactly what was happening.
‘Every year judges at this court hope we will see less young people. But every year more young people appear and we send them to prison.
‘I don’t suppose Brad, whoever he is, has been caught. When will these young men and women understand that drug dealers like ‘Brad’ use them and offer money for these drugs to be taken in for a reason.
‘It is depressing that every year I have to deal with these cases. Young people with their whole lives ahead of them put it all at risk.
‘People think they will not get caught. Drug use at this festival in Daresbury is the bane of Cheshire. It uses a lot of police resources from across the county.’
Weaver and Caller were each sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
And they’re not the only duo who have smuggled drugs inside themselves.
Erin Gallacher, 23, and then lover Keir Lyons, 24, both from Dundee, were arrested at the festival in Runcorn, Cheshire, after she tried to sneak in 46 wraps of ketamine hidden inside two Kinder egg tubes and concealed in her vagina.
One of the Kinder egg cartons contained 30 wraps, consisting of 19.7g of ketamine, valued at £1,200 and the other contained 11.1g of ketamine, valued at £640.
The couple were caught after travelling to the popular event on August 25, 2023, by coach.
But when quizzed Gallacher claimed they had not planned to smuggle the drugs into the event whilst Lyons insisted the items were for their own use.
However, at Chester Crown Court, both admitted possession of ketamine with intent to supply.
Gallacher was sentenced to four months in jail, suspended for 18 months, along with 200 hours of unpaid work.
Lyons was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 12 months, along with 300 hours of unpaid work.
For Erin Hobdell, 21, and Kira McNicol, 23, the decision to smuggle drugs inside their vagina to possibly sell on at the dance music festival resulted in a near miss with the prison system.
The two beauticians tried to bring in £6,500 worth of drugs into Creamfields but avoided jail after a judge accepted they were ‘pressured’ into acting as mules by members of their group.
Hobdell was caught with 42 knotted plastic bags containing cocaine, and ecstasy tablets hidden in her waistband while McNicol had 143 Ecstasy tablets secreted in her vagina.
The pair had travelled 230 miles from their homes in Scotland to attend Creamfields festival in Runcorn, Cheshire, in 2022 with a group of their friends.
When questioned the friends claimed they were persuaded to take the drugs into the event by the rest of the coach party and insisted they were not planning to sell the drugs.
The court heard Hobdell had 26.1g of cocaine worth up to £4,100, 2.43g of MDMA powder, also containing ketamine, valued at up to £400 and 96 MDMA tablets worth £960. McNicol had 143 tablets secreted inside her person worth £1,490.
At Chester Crown Court, Hobdell of Crookston, Glasgow pleaded guilty to possessing with intent to supply class A drugs cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) and class B drug ketamine and was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
McNicol, from Prestwick, South Ayrshire pleaded guilty to possession of MDMA with intent to supply and was sentenced to 18 months jail suspended for 18 months.
Both women sobbed in the dock as they were also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and had faced four years jail under sentencing guidelines.
have contacted Cheshire Police for comment.