Retired Californian couple imprisoned in Auckland on charges of drug smuggling

The lives of retired people are not always a bed of roses and, when there are others who want to take advantage of these people and lay traps for them, it is difficult to avoid the sad consequences. That is what the couple from the US discovered the hard way.
It is about this American couple from California. The man was a Vietnam war veteran, his wife - a cancer patient. They had raised two adopted daughters together since they were married in 1974 and had, now, set their sights set on traveling the world. But - they fell victim to a drug racket and landed behind bars in New Zealand.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 15 April 2016.

The couple was contacted by a Ghanaian man who promised them free vacation with lodging and boarding in various locations - all they had to do was to carry packets and hand them over to someone at the destination. They were told that the packets contained some harmless chemicals that was meant to clean cash that had been dyed to avoid detection by authorities.
The couple believed what they had been told and in 2013, they made three trips in six months from India to Japan, Peru to Ghana, and Brazil to Italy. They were under the impression that they were doing nothing wrong.
In 2015, they were asked to fly from Peru to Hong Kong and collect packages that "appeared to be bedsheets, coffee and rice". In Asia, they split the consignment and delivered it to two separate parties as they had been directed and then spent weeks in a Hong Kong hotel until they heard from Ghanaian again.
This time, they collected two locked suitcases and, on October 19 last year, they flew to Auckland on an Air New Zealand flight. Once there, trouble began when the Customs staff asked them to open the bags. They did not have the keys and, after the bags wee forced open, out came the huge consignment of 7.2kg of methamphetamine - this Class A drug was potentially worth more than $7 million.
They could have been put in prison for 14-years but were given sentences of 4-years and two months taking into consideration their age and medical history.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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