o-amor-online-me-transformou-em-uma-mula

Love online turned me into a mule

I behaved like a child because I didn’t know the person well and at the first chance I accepted the invitation

I am writing this letter to explain my story. I lived in Ulianópolis, Pará, Brazil and there I met someone online and I ‘chat’ with them for a long time. Then, that person invited me to visit Hong Kong. They gave me money for the ticket and sent another friend to give me some jackets because he said that Hong Kong was very cold. Then, I accepted. I looked at all the jackets; they were new all had their brand labels on and in good condition. Then, I traveled to Hong Kong on 25/12/2019 and arrived on the 26/12/2019 at 7 p.m.  

In Brazil I walked through the airport without problems. I also passed through several X-rays and nothing was shown. I was very calm because I didn’t know anything. When I arrived in the Hong Kong airport, Immigration stopped me and asked me questions I didn’t know how to answer because I don’t speak English, much less, Cantonese. They put my luggage through the X-Rays many times and they still couldn’t find anything but they kept looking. After a few hours, they began ripping my clothes and swabbing them with a cloth to make a test. Then, the test gave a positive result for cocaine, they took me to a room and checked me and saw I didn’t have any drugs inside my body.

After, they handcuffed me and took me to another room at the airport and they used a mobile phone to translate into Portuguese and made many questions. The following day, a Brazilian woman who worked for the police came and told me what was going on; she told me that the police had found 610 grams of cocaine in my jackets and I explained to her my story she said that since I couldn’t prove anything I had to stay here.

The person who gave me the jackets didn’t call me to ask if I had the jackets and to return them or deliver them to anyone. In truth, the guy I came to meet in Hong Kong had already reserved a hotel for me and I innocently came here without knowing about the drugs; but now I realize that everything was planned and that I am an idiot and I didn’t understand anything. I behaved like a child because I didn’t know the person well and at the first chance I accepted the invitation and of course, a person is not going to pay for such an expensive ticket without anything in return; I was blinder than God would have wanted me to be. I still can’t believe that I am in jail and that this has happened to me.

So, that is it. Now, I am here for an indefinite time and my hearing is on April 8. I have not been sentenced, I’m simply accused. They will ask for time to take the drugs to a lab because they say that the drugs are mixed up with other substances and now, on the 8th, they will give me a response of how much time I have to stay here. I will not assume all the blame but I don’t have a way of proving anything and proving things will cause me to stay detained longer. For me, it is very difficult because I don’t speak English and I don’t have any friends or any family or anyone to help me with this case. I don’t have a lawyer. I deliver myself to the Hands of God because only He can save me. He is who gives me strength every day…

Note: this letter was translated from its original in Portuguese and grammatical errors corrected.