Jailed Toti drug mule comes home

Jailed Toti drug mule comes home

12 January 2012 | Jenny Bipat - South Coast SUN

A 51-YEAR-OLD Toti woman who spent nearly three years in a Peruvian jail for drug trafficking is back home with her family. "I want to find work and  get my life back together. I am not going anywhere with anybody, down the coast, yes, but not on a plane," she said.

The woman does not wish to be named, as she fears being victimised, as she wants a fresh start.

"From Lima, Peru I flew to Sao Paulo and when I got on the plane to Johannesburg on December 30, 2011 it was with a great sense of relief, knowing I was at last coming back home," she said.

Her troubles with the Peruvian law and subsequent imprisonment started on October 27, 2008 on her third trip to South America. On her first two trips, to Brazil in June and August 2008, she accompanied an older woman as a travelling companion. The woman paid her expenses and gave her a salary of R3,000  on both occasions. After both trips, she returned home safely. However, on October 12 she received a third call from the same woman to accompany her to Peru. "Arrangements for all three trips were not made at the woman’s house. I always met her at a restaurant or elsewhere. Only when I had time to think about it, I realised it was strange that I did not know where she lived."

Their trip to Peru was without incident. When they got there, she was  told to spend the night in a hotel and was given money for a holiday to Cusco, near Machu Picchu. "The woman left to stay with her family and said she intended to remain for a few months."

A day before she left Cusco, she received a phone call from the woman’s ‘grandson’. "I was told to bring back a package for her. It contained eight bottles and a smaller package. He gave me an invoice from a health shop to indicate it was herbal remedies." The man also gave her a new cell phone, but with her old SIM card.

On her return to the airport in Lima  as her flight was early, she waited in a lounge for her flight to Buenos Aires.

"Everything was fine until my name was announced. I picked up my bag and walked to an information counter Two policemen told me to take my things and go with them. I didn’t know what was going on," she said. "I was told to point out my suitcase. It was wrapped in green plastic and had a big pink ribbon." Along with the suitcase they took her to a small office where they removed the plastic and demanded she open the bag. They removed clothing items and found the bottles and smaller package. "They cracked open a bottle, did a test and said it contained cocaine, drugs. I couldn’t understand them as their English was poor." "I burst out crying. I was handcuffed to a chair. I wasn’t allowed to go to the toilet or have a drink of water."

A man from the SA Embassy came to see me. "He was rude, arrogant and  and told me I would go to prison for 15 years. He also wanted to know why she was a day late in arriving, as they had received a phone call to be on the lookout for her. The flight had been delayed due to bad weather. Before she left Cusco, she recalled a man following her. He took the same flight and sat a few seats behind her.

In Lima in the boarding lounge, she noticed the man again. As she walked off with the policemen and as announcements were being made for passengers to board, the man was the last person to leave. She believes she may have been a decoy and  a lot more drugs went through via him. Her humiliation continued when she was taken to a district surgeon.

"Although two policewomen accompanied me, they sat outside while I went in alone into the doctor’s rooms. He told me to strip, I didn’t want to, but I had no choice." From the doctor’s room she was taken to a holding cell, where she remained for 11 days. She was lucky, as most prisoners remain here for a month or two. Eight days later she was placed in the minimum security section of a women’s prison.

During her first court appearance nothing could be done as there was no translator. The second time in court, she told the translator her story and that she was innocent. "He told me in Peru they don’t care if you are innocent. I was told to tell the court that I knew what I was doing, I was sorry and won’t do it again." At her third court appearance on March 27, 2009, she was sentenced. "I was told I was carrying 9.11kg of cocaine, which was wrong. My state-appointed lawyer advised me to accept my sentence of seven years and six months. I wanted to die when I heard the sentence".

Back home, her family were frantic with worry. Her sister, with the help of a friend was able to find out her whereabouts. "I was told she had been found, but it was bad news as she had been arrested with drugs. I could not stop crying," said the woman’s sister.

On being sentenced, she started serving her time and recalled her horror in the beginning. "I didn’t know anyone, I was scared. To survive, I have eaten things such as chicken feet and found horrible things in the meals such as plastic and maggots. If you don’t eat, you starve," she said.

In prison, missionaries were her contact with the outside world. They helped email letters to her family and without them, there was no contact with the outside world for foreigners.

On March 5, 2010 after serving a  one year and nine months of her sentenced she received permission to live outside of prison, but was not allowed to leave the country. "Although, I was free, I was not free. To serve the balance of my sentence, I lived in a convent."

It was difficult for her to earn money to survive as she was foreign. She did washing for other girls in the convent.
Although her family sent her packages and money, it wasn’t enough, as corruption is rife. With the assistance of a nun, also a lawyer at the convent, she was told on October 26, three years to the day of her arrest, she was free.

"I had to sort out a ton of paper work. I was meant to leave in early December, but my name was  flagged at immigration at the airport and I couldn’t leave." "On December 30, I couldn’t believe it when I was finally allowed to come home."

In Sao Paulo she had to wait 24 hours before she could fly.  earlier. On her arrival in Johannesburg she called her sister, who was surprised to hear from her. Along with another sister they met her at King Shaka airport  and she saw in the New Year with her family. "It has been three years of hell," said her sister. "I have confiscated her passport, she is not going anywhere.

She knows a number of South African women in the same prison, one of whom is 68-years-old. She warns people to be careful and not to take things at face value, to double check and get references.