Image: SCMP

By Raquel Carvalho and Marcelo Duhalde
November 24, 2018

She was pregnant, but that wasn't all she was carrying. Strapped to each of her legs were four packs of cocaine.

She claims she was coerced by two Nigerians to board a plane in São Paulo – Brazil’s most populous city – which after a stopover in Abu Dhabi was bound for Hong Kong. Soon after she landed in the city, police found that she was carrying almost 2kg of cocaine, with an estimated retail value of over HK$2 million.

The room where they put me had no lock [on the] inside. I could not escape,” she said. “I think another girl was being kept in the same flat because I once heard her screaming and crying. I tried to communicate with her but she never answered, probably out of fear.”

Chinese criminals, Latin American cartels and Nigerian brokers have been forging ties and widening their international networks. While increasing amounts of cocaine from Latin America are arriving in Asia via shipping containers or through drug mules, criminal organisations are buying chemicals from China to feed the demand in the United States and Canada for drugs such as fentanyl – an opioid for treating pain that is also widely used recreationally.

Among the most notorious in the trade was Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal, who was dubbed the “King of Crystal” for his crucial role in producing and trafficking methamphetamine. He was a close associate of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, boss of the deadly Mexican drug cartel Sinaloa. Nacho was killed in 2010, while El Chapo was handed over to the US authorities in January last year. His trial began this month in Brooklyn amid tight security measures.

Court documents said the Guangzhou enterprise had laundered at least US$5 billion through bank accounts in Hong Kong and mainland China on behalf of drug-trafficking organisations in Mexico and Colombia. According to US prosecutors, currency exchange houses, casinos, export companies and factories received billions of dollars.

Although Nigerians play a fundamental role in recruiting drug mules, according to Wotherspoon, Hong Kong authorities have done little to go after them and most kingpins remain free to run their illicit businesses in the city. “The Customs are not using the information given by drug mules. They are not going after the big fishes,” he said.

Full https://multimedia.scmp.com/week-asia/a ... afficking/