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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not feel any sympathy for drug-smuggling women?

592 replies

DarceyBissell · 12/08/2013 17:42

Just that really. Two young women facing 25 years in a Peruvian jail for trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine. Saw they described as 'vulnerable' in one paper. Hardly. Greedy and stupid though.

OP posts:
Caster8 · 13/08/2013 21:27

sweet, no I dont mean for drug smugglers. I mean have different levels of sympathy according to which crime, and the backgrounds of the people that did them, and why they did them.

Tabitha. If stupidity and lack of knowledge could be proved, that is mitigating circumstances is it not. Not sure about legally, but how we would view the girls?

kali110 · 13/08/2013 21:34

I think its a long sentence but thats the risk those people took. Countries want to keep them drug free so they need to be high.

MrsOakenshield · 13/08/2013 21:58

I'm still puzzled at how people can say - but look at the horror addiction causes - when most addicts are no more forced into taking drugs than these 2 young women may, or may not, have been forced into smuggling drugs. You are saying that no-one made them and they were out for a quick buck and of course they knew exactly what the repurcussions would be - but EXACTLY the same can be said of anyone taking drugs! Every teenager knows the dangers of taking drugs, don't they? But apparently that's not their fault, it's the fault of drug smugglers? Sorry, that doesn't wash.

You take a pill, or a line, or a smoke in the full knowledge of what it does and what might happen to you - right? Well, if that's the case, why do so many young people take drugs? We all know what smoking can do - but loads of young people start smoking. But we're not going to blame them for their actions, but we're going to blame these 2?

Be consistent, for fuck's sake.

I say again - it is possible to feel sorry for anyone who's lives have been blighted by drugs, even if all concerned are fully responsible for their actions. If these 2 acted in the full knowledge of what they were doing then they should pay the price. I would still feel sorry for them, and their families. They will have a very long time to mull over what they have done, and they and their families may never recover from that.

whiteandyellowiris · 13/08/2013 22:08

I feel sorry for them, bet they did not realise theres such long jail terms for smuggling

I think there were naïve, and wrong, but don't deserve to have there lives taken like this

SchrodingersFanny · 13/08/2013 22:10

A few years ago Horizon (I think it was) showed that apart from Heroin and crack, alcohol was the most dangerous drug. Ecstasy and cocaine were much further down he list. Alcohol is more physically dangerous, kills more people than other drugs (even when allowing for the numbers of people taking) than most other drugs. Of course drugs should be legalised or alcohol should be made illegal.

One of the faults of our drug education is telli g young people that they are dangerous- then they see someone taking them and they are OK, plus youthful immortality and they think they will be fine. And most people are. I knew loads of people who took drugs recreationally and were not addicts.

As to these girls. I think they were probably stupid, maybe naive. I can see myself in them, I thought I was immortal at 19, and did some pretty stupid things (including illegal things). I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished if guilty, but I still have sympathy

Perihelion · 13/08/2013 22:50

I;m reminded of Patricia Cahil and Karen Smith, who were caught trying to smuggle heroin out of Thailand in 1990, when I was about the age of the women in Peru currently. Even back then, pre internet and barely out of my teens, I knew it was a momumentally stupid and risky to try to smuggle drugs through airports.
I'd imagine any coersion that occurred, could have been in Ibiza, to cover drug debts and then in Peru, where all sorts of horror and intimidation could be used. I also think, depending on their tickets and travel plans, they may have been sitting ducks for Customs to pick up at the airport.

Yamyoid · 13/08/2013 22:51

Agree with mrs oakenshield.

noddyholder · 13/08/2013 23:21

Doubt they were seeing much drug related misery in Ibiza if I remember it correctly

thecook · 13/08/2013 23:25

Edam I am totally with you on this one.

edam · 13/08/2013 23:55

thanks thecook. Poor lasses. Most of us do monumentally stupid things when we are young, but for most of us the consequences are far lighter, thankfully.

emacp · 14/08/2013 00:06

These two young girls have not been convicted or found guilty of any offence.

kilmuir · 14/08/2013 11:12

but edam what they are accused of is much more than a stupid thing!.

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 14/08/2013 11:42

I'm with Tarka

I have sympathy for anyone who makes a poor decision based on their current situation and past upbringing. I have sympathy because I am hugely grateful to the people in my life now and in the past that they have not steered me in the direction of a similar decision.

Don't care if that makes me a bleeding heart liberal.
Oh and yes, I have been a victim of crime, before anyone suggests I've lived some sort of sheltered life.

Onesleeptillwembley · 14/08/2013 12:02

They certainly seem to be sticking to a script now. Silly girls, I don't think they actually comprehend the mess they are in.

PigOnStilts · 14/08/2013 12:12

They knew. They can't say " I was forced" to carry the bags then state they didn't know what was in them....

I would day though...,the scottish one is half the size she was in all the photos her parents have released so she looks like she's been through a tough time.

janey68 · 14/08/2013 12:22

On the face of it there is certainly loads that doesn't stack up. It's hard to see how they could have been forcibly taken against their will through airports. Surely however they got into this situation at the start, there would have been multiple opportunities to end it.

As for claiming they were forced at gunpoint to carry suitcases but had 'no idea' what was in them... I mean come on ... Your average 7 year old would say drugs, weapons or laundered money- definitely something illegal

BeCool · 14/08/2013 12:51

"If you don't go through with it we will kill your Mum/Dad/Niece/Brother/Friend/etc" - would that get you to proceed with something you stupidly got involved with and then realised what was going on properly and tried to get out of?

Would you then possibly appear to 'freely' walk through an airport or 2? But you would have been forced nevertheless.

Caster8 · 14/08/2013 12:58

Absolutely BeCool.
They would have known they were carrying dodgy stuff, but may be not exactly what.
And never forget that journalists have to get the story out, details come second.
After having seem how jpurnalists manage to get details wrong with even minor local paper stories, I never expect them to be very accurate with a deadline on the horizon.

Bluegrass · 14/08/2013 13:17

I don't really understand the thinking of the people who apparently "compelled them" to do this. This was a lot of money at stake, their business appears to have just taken a large loss. Would you trust that to someone who wasn't acting willingly?

Someone acting under compulsion is surely likely to look incredibly fearful and is quite likely to break down, confess etc. it seems a huge risk to take when you could instead find someone who would take the risk willingly for a substantial payment. I don't profess to understand drug smuggling psychology though so what do I know!

burberryqueen · 14/08/2013 13:18

ofc i do not know these girls but all this 'ohhh poor girls they were forced/coerced etc' makes me a bit Hmm - what if was two boys of the same age? why are girls made out to be so weak and stupid?

kali110 · 14/08/2013 15:13

I do agree with people saying you break the law in that country you are punished in that country.
I dont think just because they are young, naive, women etc they should be excused, at 19 and 20 they ate old enough to know right from wrong

janey68 · 14/08/2013 15:43

Agree Kali, being female is no excuse, and in fact to play the gender card is deeply offensive to the millions of young adult women who would never in a million years do this.

This also needs to be put in context. These women were working in Ibiza. Not even back packing alone in South America or similar- not that they shouldn't be able to do so btw- many young people nowadays go travelling. My point is that to claim that they were 'forced' is just even harder believe when put into context. How does anyone working in ibiza end up 'forced' to carry unknown luggage in Peru? It just seems impossible. Naivety is no excuse either- anyone who is old enough to get on a plane and travel overseas to work, is old enough to understand the first basic rule of travel: you never ever ever carry unknown luggage for anyone.

Original poster
DarceyBissell · 14/08/2013 17:56

Maybe the simple explanation is that they were offered loads of cash to travel to Peru and bring back drugs. They knew what they were doing and thought they could get away with it.
Someone clever once said that the most likely explanation is more often than not the correct one. Perhaps people are over thinking this.
Just a thought.

OP posts:
arabesque · 14/08/2013 18:01

They're very young, they haven't been convicted yet and we don't actually know what happened.
Very judgmental thread.

theodorakisses · 14/08/2013 18:02

Male or female, my heart still goes out to them. Kids.