[imagesource: EPA-EFE/ Warren Toda]

Some drug smuggling stories make it tough for the perpetrator to play ignorant, like when the cocaine is wrapped in your dreadlocks, for example.

In the same vein, other stories of those caught up in criminal activity can really tug at the heartstrings, and anybody who has watched an episode of Banged Up Abroad knows that things can go very wrong, very quickly.

Often, mules aren’t even aware that they’re transporting large amounts of illegal substances, which is what a 48-year-old woman from Durban is claiming was the case when she was caught with 18 kilograms of dagga in her baggage at a Turkish airport.

That’s well in excess of what is considered ‘personal and private use’ if the new Regulation of Cannabis Bill is passed into law.

The Durban woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, has just returned after spending seven years behind bars for that bust, and told her story to City Press:

She said that she met the man in question through friends and that he had taken her along to a church in Benoni, Ekurhuleni.

Four months later, he asked her to take a bag to his brother in Turkey.

She was unwilling and said she didn’t know the country, but he coaxed her and said she could buy herself beautiful things with the R20 000 that he promised her.

Before they departed for OR Tambo International Airport, the man handed her a bag that was locked and gave her $200 (R3 000).

At this stage, I would run for the hills, but the woman chose to board the flight, and says that it was only when they were in the air that she started questioning what she might be transporting.

When she touched down in Turkey, things quickly unravelled:

In Istanbul she went to a hotel close to the airport, where she was told that a booking had been made for her. There she received multiple telephone calls from people she did not know.

“One told me to go to McDonald’s and gave me the address.”

While she was struggling to get the heavy bag down the stairs, a man came to assist her. He said he was a police officer and began peppering her with questions.

“I began crying and told him that I didn’t really know what was in the bag.”

The police officer found the dagga, which probably wasn’t hard considering that there was 18kg of it, wrapped inside her bag.

From there, she was taken into custody, and it was a full nine months until she was allowed to make contact with her family in South Africa.

After a three-year wait for her trial, during which time she remained in prison, she was sentenced to more than nine years in jail in December 2016.

Now, after close to seven and a half years behind bars, she has returned home. I find this bit staggering:

…she still can’t believe that she fell for a scam.

“I used to watch the programme Banged Up Abroad, but I never thought it would happen to me.”

If you’ve watched Banged Up Abroad, and you still hop onto a flight with no idea what is in the bag you’re carrying, you’re asking for trouble.

One really should heed those signs at airports that ask whether you packed your own bag, or left it unattended.

It’s one thing travelling from Cape Town to Durban with a parcel your mate asked you to carry, and quite another to fly to another country with a bag you’ve never inspected, given to you by a person you hardly know.

Still, a horror story nonetheless.

This past Sunday, Carte Blanche touched on some similar stories, in their segment on how O.R. Tambo International has gained a reputation for being a drug smuggler’s paradise:

[source:citypress]