Two British Women Held In Peruvian Prison On Charges Of Drug Smuggling

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2389737/Terrified-British-girls-locked-Peruvian-hellhole-jail-smuggling-1-5million-cocaine-hysterical-eaten-seven-days.html

Has anyone any sympathy for these two, if the charges against them are proven to be true?

[netibiza]

Meg888 - exactly, so if all innocent why not tell the parents they were going to Peru, for a free holiday, because then the parents could have/would have/should have warned them of all these things.

[andy-hughes]

neti - I don;t think these ladies are 'innocent' in the sense that they have not committed the crime of which they are accused - evidence suggests that they are, rather that they are 'innocent' in the sense of being inexperienced and foolish - for which they look to pay a very heavy price indeed.

[albaqwerty]

andy x

If the lasses had gone on holiday to Peru and had picked up a keep-sake which turned out to be illegal ( a lama with some cocaine in it for example) then that's completely different from what seems to have transpired here.

Meg, I work away from home when I was 17 and considered myself to be 'street-wise' if I didn't like the company or the surroundings, I left toute suite.

[andy-hughes]

alba - there are plenty of tourists of the age of these ladies, and younger, and indeed older who are perfectlyu aware of the dangers of this type of activity - but sadly, there are large numbers who subconcioulsy believe that they will simply not get caught - so they don't bother to consider what will happen if they are caught.

As I have said earlier - that's human nature.

[netibiza]

Yes andy-hughes but not telling anyone that they were going to Peru points to something untoward!

[Peter Pedant]

.

Free holiday - it should be looked on as being handed the Black SPot (Treasure Island) or the Queen of Spades (Carmen - tra-la-la-la).

Does anyone remember not relevannt in this case, when the parents of Sharon X and Wan-e-a Y went down the nick and complained that their girls were being given a free holiday and Something Was Up, and the Police refused to do anything as ermm they were on the radar as smugglers....
Case dropped I think

[Peter Pedant]

Andy H - AOG admitting that if you dropped the spin there would be v little left in the Mail means surely that the news he buys is all spin and very little else ?

I thought this elucidation was er rather obvious

[andy-hughes]

Peter - i think AOG meant there would be little left to my post - although to be honest, I did see it your way, and I prefer that version!

[Meg888]

@ NetIbiza - at no point did I suggest they were innocent. I said they may have been foolishly naive; they will have probably known full well they'd get locked up if caught, but there are loads of young people who don't believe it will happen to them and can be reeled in. I'm sure a lot of young people are targeted for their naivity, in as much as people like Alba would not be. I knew loads of people who would have went through with this as a young person (myself not incl!!), and still know a couple now - I have sympathy for their foolish acts, for their naivity and mostly for their parents - but I also believe they need punished for this, and should not be treat any differently to anyone else.

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// Similarly, it will always publish a large photo of any photogenic woman in any of its news stories, but not if she is not. ///

I have seen many un-photogenic 'chavs' published in the Daily Mail.

As regards to publishing photos of any photogenic woman in any of their news stories, they are not on their own.

http://cdn1.independent.ie/incoming/article29490357.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/michaella1.jpg

http://cdn3.independent.ie/incoming/article29490356.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/michaela9.jpg

http://i2.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/article2148799.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/santajail1-2148799.jpg

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2013/8/10/252914/default/v3/michaella-1-522x293.jpg

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1293220/thumbs/o-MICHAELLA-MCCOLLUM-CONNOLLY-AND-MELISSA-REID-570.jpg?6

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

I know you have daughters Andy, but would you be so sympathetic if these two alleged drug smugglers had been men?

[andy-hughes]

AOG - my sympathy is not gendered-based.

The reality is, the vast majority of dealers are men - ergo they target young girls.

Had the dealers been women targeting foolish youg men, then yes, I would still feel the same level of sympathy - young people do silly irresponsible things - but they rarely have twenty-five years in a foreign jail to contemplate such foolishness.

[netibiza]

Yes andy-hughes that is true and I do feel sorry for the life wasted (yes and also for the lives wasted on the cocaine)

[joko]

yes thanks andy, but i was speaking rhetorically really - i am aware exactly why these idiots do it ... i just don't understand how their brains can work like that, how in their heads they can come to the conclusion that it will be ok, and genuinely not see the risks - just how are people that stupid?

my point was with all the knowledge and history - we know they xray bags, have sniffer dogs, do searches, have tip offs, we know these smugglers are dodgy and don't care about the mule, and we know some countries will put you to death, or many years in jail etc - it is just quite amazing that they still do it - especially in such a simplistic way as this - no clever concealment attempt - seemingly just walked through with it in their case

[andy-hughes]

joko - never underestimate the human mind's ability not to see what it does not wish to see.

[Infomaniac]

A lot of people have commented on the girls' naïveté, but they knew that what they were doing was criminal and immoral. The naïveté may have been that they didn't expect to be caught, but they were not naive enough to think that what they were doing was innocent and harmless.

[naomi24]

Stupid more than naïve, I'd guess.

[FredPuli43]

Doesn't sound very credible. One girl said she didn't know it was drugs yet the story is that they were forced at gunpoint to travel. And why would anyone have to force them at gunpoint to make them go anywhere or do anything? It shouldn't be necessary anyway; just giving them money, so they don't go to police, or disappear, and so they go voluntarily. And how long did this threat last; it had to operating from beginning to end.

Classic drug mules who dealers would choose. Young British women, of the age when youngsters back pack in Peru , turning up in Lima, look normal. . What sank them may well have been that the authorities noticed how short the trip was

[ummmm]

I don't doubt for a second that they knew what they were doing.

[friedgreentomato]

If they were forced at gunpoint to travel they would have been absolutely terrified, from the footage of them at the airport they don't look that terrified.

If they are innocent then I am sure that it will come out in the wash!