To not feel any sympathy for drug-smuggling women?

[DarceyBissell]

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.

I don't understand why people don't believe they could have been forced yet not known what it was they were carrying. Yes, they probably would have guessed, but that's not the same as knowing, is it?

I expect they were forced, in one way or another. And I feel incredibly sorry for them and their families. As the daughter of a drug addict who did die of an overdose, I feel just as sorry for them. Not sure why that would make any difference tbh.

Our government inflicts this level of insane loneliness and abuse on young people. I have seen it first hand in detention centres - and they are people who have committed no crime. Children too.

if they are guilty they should be punished according to peruvian law.

there is no point in stating that sentences are different in madrid, sweden, britain, wherever. if you are concerned about spending time in a peruvian prison, don't commit a crime in peru, do somthing naughty where the prisons are 'nice' and sentences 'civilised'.

what about the poor peruvians who have been sentenced according to peruvian law, should we petition for them to have shorter sentences? why should foreigners get soft sentences when they went to peru to take the piss out of that country?

They won't lose their adult lives to this - that's just ridiculous. The only way they will get more than 8 years is if they are found to be part of a drugs gang, not mules recruited by them - then they could get 15, but we're assuming that's not the case. If they get 8 years, they will probably only serve 2-3. They smuggled an enormous amount of drugs and there will have to be some kind of consequence. I'm not sure they would have got less than that anywhere else. I have worked for cocaine smugglers in a professional capacity and they all got 8-9 years when pleading guilty.

Well said domesticvoyager. They will do 2/3 yrs, no more. There's a lot of hysteria on here.

The Peruvian justice system is very familiar with this crime. There is a women's prison in Lima inhabited virtually entirely by western drugs mules - they will not be locked up with murderers, but stupid, greedy, lying young women just like them.

And guess what? None of them did it of their own free will either - they were ALL forced at gunpoint. Incredible coincidence isn't it?

Has anyone else noticed that the "holiday snaps" which the girls were apparently forced to pose for have been taken in a hot country. It is cold in Peru at the moment about 9 degrees so they would not be wearing bikinis there. More likely they we taken in Ibiza and prove the girls knew each other before their alleged kidnapping.

There is a link on the bbc website to an interview inside Ancona 2, where they will probably go. It is new, modern and has good facilities. Cramped of course, but really better than many I have seen.

I don't really understand the references to rape by guards etc. Why do you think Peruvians are a nation of rapists? Really bizarre, and definitely not the experience reported by women who have been imprisoned there.

Sandra Gregory was caught in Thailand with heroin (less than the amount for the mandatory death sentence) when she was 19. She got 21 years, served 4 there, 3 back in the UK in high-security prisons, then got a pardon. SHe has just graduated from Oxford.

As if anyone would knidnap two girls in ibiza, fly them to Peru and then send them to the UK with drugs. There are so many foolish young people willing to do this, nobody needs to abduct anybody.

I feel sorry for their parents who undoubtedly think they are innocent and a good lawyer will show this in the court case. Gradually, the penny will drop that their daughters have done this ugly thing.

I know there have been lots of lurid reports about the Ibiza drugs scene, but one person was quoted as saying that this is a very common story out there. People spend a lot of money on their druggy lifestyle, they get hungry for more. Lots and lots of people get away with it and come back loaded, some get caught.

The fact that they were apparently shopping buying loads of designer clothes during their trip makes me think they were pretty thrilled with the financial aspect of their decision.

eccentrica speaks a lot of sense but I don't expect the ignorant to appreciate this

Those girls were monumentally stupid and they will pay for their stupidity. I have known many recreational users of various drugs and none of them would be stupid enough to cross borders with anything at all, let alone attempt smuggling 11 kgs (ffs!) from a terribly intolerant place with revolting prisons

For all this pity, what about after they serve their several (well deserved) years and spend their lives making money off how hard done by they were?

Look at Schapelle Corby? The amount of money she's made in prison crying about how unfair it is that she didn't get away with it.

no sympathy here either.

They knew what they were doing. Even if by some miracle they were abducted from Ibizza they had the opportunity to alert the authorities and they failed to do so.

But actually I no longer believe the cries of "young, naïve" etc, there have been plenty of stories in the news about women who are caught smuggling drugs and the consequences for doing so. There are enough stories out there that anyone with half a brain cell knows that if you get caught smuggling drugs in many countries the consequences are harsh. Don't want to do the time? then don't do the crime.

Loopy, I expect they were forced, in one way or another.

I find it very hard to accept they were forced having watched their body language on the videos.

It is odd how criminally stupid people can be. And yet you can imagine how if you move around in a world of drugs, you must think that well okay here are drugs at this party, somebody obviously brought it in and therefore people do get away with it. Plus doesn't cocaine make you feel invincible and wonderful and as if you could achieve anything?

Sandra Gregory was not 19 - she was 27/28. And she was sentenced to death, which was immediately commuted to life (then 25 years). In all I think she served around 7 years, between Thailand and the UK.

"doesn't cocaine make you feel invincible and wonderful and as if you could achieve anything?"

Yes, for about one minute. Not long enough to convince yourself it's a good idea to travel across the Atlantic Ocean and come back with 11 kgs of Class A drugs, let alone actually carry it out.

I mention Sandra Gregory not because of her age. She may have been a bit older, but she was still very young and naive. She served a much harsher sentence, in far worse conditions than these girls will do (if convicted) and has managed to rebuild her life.

I just really resent the idea stated over and over on this thread that because of their silly mistake, their lives are over.

you resent it do you like you've ever paid for a mistake with thirty years of your life? and not just thirty years, but thirty years in squalor, at risk of abuse, neglect, isolation, loneliness and without decent health care or mental health support. It's quite sadistic how people can just shrug with a glib, yeh well they committed a crime. They did, but if you wish this on them you're a sadist.

No sympathy from me.
There's been enough publicity about similar cases elsewhere in the world for people to know exactly what will happen if they are caught carrying drugs where local jurisdiction is draconian.
If you can't do the time don't do the crime.

I'm quite intrigued by the people who seem to see this as just a mistake that anyone might make. The reason drug smuggling gets a heavy sentence is because it's a serious crime, not just a mistake that anyone could make.

Cocaine addiction is not pretty and anyone carrying 11kgs into a country is helping to create major emotional, physical and social problems. It can't attract a short sentence

Just read a short interview with one of the fathers. He sounds almost as dozy as his daughter, but him I do feel sorry for. She was off to be a dancer was she? That would be the Ibiza Ballet School.

And has anyone seen the bloke with one eye and a chest of tattoos that they are pictured with? That is the sort of man you avoid surely. He looked terrifying.

That's a separate issue though.

Would you want British inmates to be at risk of sexual abuse, to be isolated culturally and through language barrier? would you want British prisoners to have no access to decent health care, to be unable to count on a mattress. I can separate out the issues.