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.

[TheMagicKeyCanFuckOff]

I think this might well be stupid naively but the whole passport thing and whatever speaks to me that, although it sounds like it could have been coercion, it could also have been someone they me, suggesting a little holiday, for a little job- it would be fun, easy, they'd go somewhere and hey, maybe he was one of their new friends or a boyfriend or someone they'd met and had fun with, and it would be all okay and easy. And then it ended up like this.

[galletti]

If they did it, no sympathy whatsoever. But masses of sympathy for their families, and indeed the people that suffer through drugs being brought into the country, or any country.

[Grumpywino]

I feel sorry for them, they are young and in over their heads. They, just like the addicts, are victims of organised and dangerous international criminals whose reach crosses borders. At their ages I thought I was I immortal with an amazing and fun future ahead of me. They are learning a dire life lesson. I can't judge them any further as the facts are not yet known. I also can't imagine how their loved ones feel.

[PenelopePitstops]

What if it was planted on them?

No one will ever know, but Peru isn't the most reputable place.

[RonaldMcDonald]

I feel very very sorry for their family and yes actually for the girls themselves
I remember dimly what being young was like and I would have been naive and foolish
I might have ended up in a prison given the wrong circumstances

I'm amazed that we have no empathy or sympathy for them

[Remotecontrolduck]

They're 19 and 20. Plenty old enough to know drug smuggling is highly illegal and you will pay an extremely high price in many countries for your wrecklessness.

I'm just not buying the 'young and naive' thing. I think it's infantilising to the vast majority of young ADULT women who wouldn't dream of doing such things. They should know that there is no such thing as 'easily' smuggling drugs or free holidays.

If they're innocent, it's been planted or presumably been physically forced to carry the drugs under extreme threat they'll be freed. And i'll feel very sorry for their ordeal. Otherwise no I don't have any empathy with them. Those drugs could have killed someone, or caused them to destroy their lives even further.

[cantspel]

2 very stupid girls who saw a way to earn some fast money thinking they wouldn't be caught.

I will save my sympathy for someone who doesn't think drug smuggling is an acceptable way to fund their party lifestyle.

[Remotecontrolduck]

25 years is a bit of a red herring as well I think, I very much doubt they'll get anything like that. That's the absolute maximum sentence.

[MistressDeeCee]

YANBU, I dont feel sorry for them at all. Its only because theyve been caught we hear all the vulnerability sob stories. The ones that arent caught are probably busy enjoying the money theyve made from killer drugs.

[Remotecontrolduck]

I think also you're setting a very dodgy precedent if 19/20 year olds can't be held responsible for their actions. Being young and naive does not mean smuggling drugs. Where does it end, do we let off all young female drug smugglers?

[sweetestcup]

And I cant believe the amount of people here who seem willing to excuse their actions just because they are young and female and are facing a foreign jails conditions. Just saw a video and one is claiming they were forced and they didn't know it wad drugs, so there goes the planted theory. Don't buy they were forced either, doesn't add up.

[Gracie990]

Oh I feel for them, it's so easy to make a stupid decision when your young.
I read the article with horror for their families imagining it being my own daughter. It's horrific for the family, especially as one of them doesn't appear to have any money.

I have travelled through Malaysia and the death penalty notices are very clear at border crossing. I would think S america is similar. You would be mad to even contemplate it. However by the time these girls got to the airport they just could not have turned around. They were in too deep.

So sad for them all.

[noddyholder]

I agree with rosy my ds is this age and sometimes I listen to him and his mates and realise how much they have to learn Not much compassion here.

[Peachyjustpeachy]

yes i've just seen the excuse video...

I was forced to carry it
i didnt know what was in it


well if you had to force me to take something across a border, there is a large chance i'd understand what was in it!

why else would force be involved????

[SpecialAgentCuntSnake]

They were forced... But they didn't know it was drugs?

Surely it's one or the other?

[SpecialAgentCuntSnake]

X-Post!

Yeah, we're dividing up this curious powder into our suitcases.... No clue?

[fluffyraggies]

Sorry but if they're old enough and savy enough to have got out to Ibeza, got jobs and had a good lifestyle then i think the chances are they knew full well the risks of drug smuggling FGS. They went on a quick trip out from Ibeza to Peru - and came back with bags full of powder in their luggage.

They say they didn't know it was drugs. They say they were forced into it.

To me these two things don't add up very well. Did they really think they were being forced into carrying 20/30 packets of soup powder in their luggage? They didn't know what it was? Come on.

They were either forced,
or they knew what it was.

They need to get their story straight that's for sure.

[fluffyraggies]

X posted with everyone!

[TheRealFellatio]

I've just read the story in the paper and it sounds very much as though they knew what they were doing. They had been working for the summer in bars and clubs in Ibiza. Not your average gap year backpackers who may have unwittingly had something planted on them. Why Peru? Honestly, who decides to work in a bar in Ibiza and then suddenly ends up in Peru? Where did they get the money for their tickets? It's really really expensive - such a long way. And the girl's mother said she though she was still in Ibiza.

That says it all to me.

[racmun]

Assuming they weren't coerced, a Peruvian drugs baron hasn't threatened their families in Britain etc and they did it for the money I don't have any sympathy. DH's cousin died from a heroin overdose aged 20 so have first hand experience off the havoc drugs can cause.

You need to have really harsh penalties for these crimes to deter people.

If it has been planted on them and they are the victims then of course I feel sorry for them and hopefully that will come out in time.

[treaclesoda]

I also believe that 19 is plenty old enough to take responsibility for your actions and I'm usually fairly cynical of the sob stories. But then I'm a born worrier and I knew by the age of about 13 not to carry things for other people.

But having seen last week how frantically the girl's family were searching for her, there is just something about about this that makes me feel (and its just a gut feeling, I could obviously be wrong) that coercion was involved. If she was just off on a jaunt, offered money to do it, why didn't she just reply to her family's texts and say 'I'm fine!'. They knew she wasn't in Ibiza, but she could easily have lied and said 'oh, don't worry, I've just gone to to explore, want to make the most of my time' and that would have been that. But they thought she was dead, she had disappeared completely. It just makes me wonder if she had been put in a position where she couldn't contact anyone. And just because her family were back in the UK doesn't necessarily mean that if someone threatened to harm them she could just shrug it off and say 'no, its too far away'. International criminals tend to have contacts all over the place. I'm not saying that her family actually were in danger, just that it would be fairly easy for someone to convince her that they were.

Mind you, if she knew what she was doing and agreed to it, then that's her own fault, everyone makes decisions and lives with the consequences. Her poor poor family though. Regardless of how she got there, they are certainly suffering now.

[Caster8]

Now we have more "facts", it doesnt sound do good.