April 2025 - No Más Mulas

No security with drugs

I was imprisoned for drug trafficking and have now been in a correctional facility for 17 months, awaiting sentencing by the High Court.

Let me share my background. I have been working in a restaurant since I graduated from high school. Around the year 2020, I started to get into debt, my debts began to increase, and due to the impact of the pandemic, my income decreased. Unable to find a job, I had to borrow to repay old debts.

In March 2020, I found an extra job as a night-shift security guard, so I started working two jobs. My work at the restaurant began around 10 am until 10 pm, then I would go home to get ready to report to the security room. I worked all night until 7 am before going home for a nap. Sometimes, due to transportation issues, I couldn’t even go home and had to go directly from the security room to the restaurant to rest after my shift. I was only sleeping 3-4 hours a day.

This situation continued until the moment I was arrested, and I was supposed to work in the security room that night. Over the past year or so, my mental state deteriorated; I was severely sleep-deprived and tired. When I was on vacation, I would drink. Continue reading No security with drugs

Wheels of misfortune

With this letter, I want to be an example for people out there. Not to be misled or oppressed by drug people. They will always tell you that it’s an easy job, don’t believe it. This is my story and truth.

I came to Hong Kong to smuggle drugs for someone. They told me it was an easy job. Nothing could be further from the truth. They had hidden the drugs in a wheelchair where you couldn’t see them. When I arrived at Hong Kong airport, the police discovered the wheelchair and found the drugs. So people, no matter how they hide the drugs, the police will find them. Here in Hong Kong, if you get involved with drug gangs, you’ll go to jail for a long time.

Continue reading Wheels of misfortune

Caught in the snare

I’m a 31-year-old man from Uganda. I had difficulties getting a job after obtaining my bachelor’s degree in business administration. I finally got a job as a salesman through my father, a branch manager at a store that sold tires. I held this job for more than five years.

It was during that time that I started my own family and all was well until I got a call from my aunt one evening telling me my mom had been admitted to hospital after collapsing during a community-saving meeting. She was diagnosed with carcinoma, and the only fair news was that it was still at an early stage and could be stopped from spreading to other parts of her body. The doctor informed us that my mother was experiencing heart failure. That’s why she had collapsed. I knew that very day that this was a turning point in all of our lives.

Continue reading Caught in the snare

A victim in the crosshairs

I am 22 years old and I am writing this letter so that you don’t accept the deals traffickers are giving me.

Before coming to Hong Kong, my situation was always complicated because I had difficulty finding work, as the pandemic had severely affected the job market.

I worked selling clothes in the mornings and as a waitress in pizzerias to help my father, who suffered from heart problems and needed urgent surgery. What I earned wasn’t enough to pay for medical appointments, tests, or medications. I had to drop out of school to help with the living expenses.

.…every time I called I heard my dad crying and saying he didn’t want to die.

I worked from the age of 14 to support my education and help my father, since we only had each other. Over time, the treatments weren’t working, and he was hospitalized several times. I had to figure out what to do to keep my job, take care of my father, and get money for his medical expenses. We had withdrawn money from the bank to pay off our debts. I started working double shifts at night, working overtime and going to work in the mornings, doing housework, and looking for any other job to earn more, even though it meant not being able to rest or spend time with my father, whose health was deteriorating as the months went by.

Continue reading A victim in the crosshairs