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Original poster

Drug smuggling

22 replies

NAB3 · 12/07/2007 18:38

When I heard this earlier it felt like it was being reported as they were innocent and couldn't possibly have done it on purpose. It now transpires that they told their parents they were on a school trip after being offered a free holiday and then asked to carry some bags. Is anyone really that naive?

OP posts:

MrsMar · 12/07/2007 19:26

they must be, they're 16 and accepted a free holiday to Ghana from two strangers. There must be more to this, cos even a 16 year old wouldn't do that would they?

Carmione · 13/07/2007 08:12

Can you imagine thinking that your daughter is in France on a school trip and then getting a call to say that she has been trying to smuggle drugs.
This is exactly the kind of dangerous thing that really stupid little girls can get talked into by evil people.
No matter how complicit they were and no matter how much they knew about it, it wasn't, couldn't have been their idea and I think that they have been taken advantage of big time and deserve a bit of leniency.

MotherFunk · 13/07/2007 08:23

Message withdrawn

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 13/07/2007 08:27

What sort of parents, think their children are on a school trip, when they are in Ghana ?

Did they not want to see them off on the coach?

Did they not meet other mothers from their community and mention the upcoming trip?

Did they not think it strange that there was no note home from school, no payment plan ??

Seriously lacking.

Upwind · 13/07/2007 08:35

How long would people usually get for smuggling drugs into the UK?

If nothing else, these stupid girls could have saved some equally stupid gap year students. I have to work in developing countries sometimes and am utterly horrified at the 18/19 year old Brits I find there on their first trip without their parents, doing the most insanely idiotic things - including indiscreetly buying and using drugs, sleeping around...

Gap year students from other countries tend to be older and more experienced. I have several times felt the need to describe African jails to teenage gap year travellers in the hope of shocking them into some sense.

MotherFunk · 13/07/2007 08:40

Message withdrawn

plummymummy · 13/07/2007 08:47

Hmm, not sure about sleeping around as often as you like if using protection. Protection offers 99% protection so 1% will get pg/STDs. Also it is rare to use condoms at the beginning of intercourse and there is a risk of infection from pre-ejaculate. Everyone knows the stats for HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Carmione · 13/07/2007 08:49

I think it is about risk assesment and that teens undoubtably take risks that they shouldn't. They don't seem to have many concerns about consequences. I know I did some bloody stupid things in Barcelona when I was 17. I probably would've been knifed in a gutter if I had not, very luckily, met a fairly decent bloke.

Upwind · 13/07/2007 08:51

Would you want your teenage dd to be routinely sleeping with big game hunters? Or your ds to be happily buying drugs from and using drugs with a predatory gay man? Travellers sleep around and use drugs but grown ups usually have enough sense not to put themselves in danger.

I actually told them to experiment with these things if they must but wait till they got to Australia if that was their final destination or better still till they were home and in university.

Teenagers take gap years to have experiences, that is what they were after but to them sex and drugs were the most exiting thing on offer. They do not seem to appreciate the landscape, culture, wildlife etc in the slightest. So I fail to see the point in their travelling so far, and putting themselves at risk to experiment with sex and drugs.

For them, and probably for these girls two it is the ultimate in sophistication. Stories of how wasted you were, or what risks you took, sound much more exciting when set in Ghana than in Brighton. Those girls probably imagined telling their friends about their audacity.

Upwind · 13/07/2007 09:00

last post in response to MotherFunk btw

and yes, when I was that age I too would have been that stupid luckily I never had the chance

Leati · 13/07/2007 09:16

Kids that age think they are invincible, maybe even untouchable. I did some pretty wild and totally dumb things when I was a teen so personally, even if they did do it on purpose I would take it easy. Easy that is unless they have a history of reckless, criminal behavior. A scare like this is probably enough to set them straight.

MotherFunk · 13/07/2007 09:22

Message withdrawn

mm22bys · 13/07/2007 09:25

The story doesn't make sense. There was supposed to be 3kgs in each laptop case, but they thought the bags were empty.

Three kgs is a decent weight, you could not mistake it for being "empty".

Surely kids these days are taught about drugs, or even if they're not "taught" about them, surely they no not to accept a package from somebody else?

Agree the parents seem to be negligent.

A report I heard this morning indicated they did actually know what they were doing.

I think it'll be tough to get the sentence right on this one, 10 years is a long time, but if they are let off too lightly, more and more "kids" will be targeted to be the mules.

MotherFunk · 13/07/2007 09:41

Message withdrawn

Leati · 13/07/2007 09:53

Think about the stupidest thing you did at the age. While I hope it wasn't as unlawful as what these girls did, I still think they deserve a second chance. Kids make dumb mistake, that doesn't make them hardened criminals. But if these girls go to jail for ten years then they will come out hardened criminals. I think a long humilating bout of community service would serve justice better.

MotherFunk · 13/07/2007 10:05

Message withdrawn

Upwind · 13/07/2007 10:06

I feel for them - but they are in Ghana and will be sentenced according to the justice system there.

It would be very unfair if they were given special treatment simply because they are "British teenagers". They are old enough to have criminal responsibility and I expect that they knew exactly what they were doing.

And as mm22bys pointed out, if they are let off teenagers will be targeted more than before.

Motherfunk - it is their right, but I find their treatment of developing countries as a playground a bit distasteful. I suspect British teenagers often come to grief in developing countries but rarely come back and report on the bad experiences. Most people in these places are really kind and decent, but there will always be a tiny minority who are not. On your first holiday without your family it is not so easy to spot these.

themoon66 · 13/07/2007 12:57

If someone offered you £3,000 to deliver an empty laptop case to a bloke at heathrow, wouldn't you just nip to PC world, buy a case, take it to heathrow, take the money and bugger off. Save yourself the hassle of flights, lying to mum etc?

plummymummy · 13/07/2007 13:31

They probably have people watching to make sure the case is carried onto the plane.

Upwind · 13/07/2007 13:34

From the BBC, one of the girls gave her own account of what happened news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6897139.stm

Speaking by telephone from prison in Accra, she said: "There were basically two boys over here who gave us two bags and told us... it was an empty bag

"We never thought anything bad was inside... and they told us to go to the UK and drop it off to some boy... at the airport."

"It was basically like a set-up. They didn't tell us nothing, we didn't think nothing, 'cos basically we are innocent.

"We don't know nothing about this drugs and stuff."

GroaningGameGirly · 13/07/2007 13:37

I reckon one of them is Cortnie

Upwind · 13/07/2007 13:39

I have not seen any photos of the girls but on reading that pictured them as Vicky Pollard and Lauren.

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