'mules' Carrying Drugs From South America To Europe...

[sandyRoe]

The recent drug-related arrest of two young women from the UK in Peru made me wonder how many get through to deliver their cocaine. There must be some or the 'Mr Bigs' would recruit them.
Could there be a more nerve-racking way to earn money?

[friedgreentomato]

If it is the law of the land that they choose to smuggle in then I don't think it matters if we agree with the death penalty or not - it may still go ahead!

[Octavius]

She also used the 'I was forced into it' defence, but to be fiar to her 15 years in Hotel K would do, the firing squad just seems to be unfair and a political step in my view.

[VHG]

I sometimes watch "Nothing to declare" on TV about the Australian customs.

They often stop people with strange travel patterns, or strange ticket buying arrangements, to see if they are carrying drugs.

So if someone else has bought your ticket, or if the ticket was paid for in cash, or if you spent a short amount of time in a known drug country and so on. These are all reasons to stop people.

So there must be customs people "behind the scenes" studying ticket buying patterns and travel arrangements so on.

Strange to think that every plane trip we make may have been studied by someone to see if it looks dodgy.

[ummmm]

No it doesn't matter if we agree with the death penalty or not. I was talking about what sympathy I have.

Saying that, I think after many years in a Thai jail she might be longing for the death penalty.

Seeing how the very poor people live out there you can easily imagine what the jails must be like...

[friedgreentomato]

VHG, the plane manefest is studied by teams for 'odd' items everytime a plane comes in from 'target' countries.

[FredPuli43]

Customs and Excise in other countries can be pretty hot. My daughter was once detained at Geneva because, as she went through, she used her mobile to speak to the obvious drug dealer on the other side of the glass viz me ! So I went through, as I was also travelling, and had to explain (after, of course, disposing of any white powder about my person ) :)

[sandyRoe]

Would many of the young travellers coming back from their gap year to Europe from South America be searched? If not, mules might considerably reduce their risk of porridge if they gave more thought to their preparations.

[Octavius]

I find it very hard to have very much sympathy - if any at all - for these two girls. That might change if they were sentenced to death, but for moment, zilch.

[hc4361]

I couldn't take illicit drugs. I'd worry about where they'd been.

[237SJ]

Can`t say I`ve ever heard of customs studying the flight manifest. That only shows names of passengers, seat number, specials (such as wheelchair required/medical) etc. It doesn`t show any details as to who booked the ticket, how it was paid for etc. or any info (apart from name) that would be of interest to customs. If they need the name, they would look at the passport when the passenger goes through Customs (unless they`ve thrown it down the loo on the aircraft which is more an Immigration issue)

[Hypognosis]

Yep. The trouble is, no matter how many times they show clips of them processing coca leaves in the jungle or of a raided 'e' factory in some grubby garage, on the news, the youngsters who it would otherwise put off are already out for the evening.

I bet some of them fuss about 'e numbers', GM food or half the stuff that comes out of a proper laboratory one minute and guzzle backstreet pills the next.

[sandyRoe]

Agree. ^ Recently here in NI nine young people have died and it's thought the deaths were as a result of taking 'bad ecstasy'.

[hc4361]

I'm not going to swallow, smoke or inject anything that has already been swallowed or hidden in an 'intimate' place, thank you very much

[sandyRoe]

So you not be interested in a steaming cup of Kopi Luwak, then?

[jno]

do Es have E numbers, Hypognosis?

[friedgreentomato]

237SJ, just beause you have not heard of it does not mean it doesn't happen.

[237SJ]

If there is an investigation into someone, then they might need to see the manifest (can`t see why) but any info about who paid for the ticket, how long the person was away etc is not on the manifest - it`s in an airline`s reservations system.

[FredPuli43]

But if Customs did study the flight manifest, what would it tell them of value in assessing whether a passenger was a mule or not?

What gives the game away is stamps in the passport, first of all, and then, given that information, checking the routes taken and how they were paid for and by whom, which can be discernible though the last may take time. If it shows that payment was by Amex, and the passenger hasn't got an Amex card, that might raise questions, and if by cash so might that. Likewise if the payment emanates from some country which the passenger wasn't in at the time.

[Booldawg]

for the amount you can carry and the high risk involved in getting caught it beggars belief how anyone would be naive enough to attempt this method of smuggling via passenger flights.