I was born in 1989 in western Mongolia. I lived with my wife and our two-and-a-half-year-old son. My wife graduated from university in 2011 and works as an accountant, earning a monthly income. I work as a heavy truck driver, and my monthly income is around 3 million tugrug. Together, our household income is substantial for our country (approximately $1280 USD). Our immediate and extended families all live in the same area. We were married in 2020, and I finished building our house in 2019, thanks to my job.
In my entire life, I had never had any trouble with the law. I’ve never used drugs or abused alcohol, and I have spent my life working and caring for my family. My international travel was limited to five trips: a one-week holiday in Russia, three work trips to China in 2014, 2016, and 2018, and the trip in question to South America and Hong Kong between May 30 and June 6, 2024.
I went on the trip with the hope of earning extra money for my family. When I left Mongolia, I was unaware that I was being recruited to transport drugs. I was lied to, and only upon arrival in South America was I forced to transport dangerous drugs inside my body.
The Events Leading to the Arrest
The events began in August 2023. While on a family camping trip at a mineral water area, I befriended a couple, EE and her boyfriend, who were my tent neighbors. We got along well and exchanged phone numbers.
She told me she was going abroad for a lucrative job because her boyfriend had already gone and made good money…. When I asked about the job, she vaguely described it as simply loading trucks with goods, offering an unusually high salary….
About a month and a half later, EE called me. She told me she was going abroad for a lucrative job because her boyfriend had already gone and made good money, which helped them finish building their house. When I asked about the job, she vaguely described it as simply loading trucks with goods, offering an unusually high salary of $8000 USD for one month’s work. Despite my surprise at the high pay for a simple job, she assured me it was normal there and invited me to join.
Over the next two months, we kept in contact. I eventually decided to take the chance to earn extra money and see a new country. We met in the capital city on December 6, 2023, where she informed me that if I could recruit other workers, the company needed them. She assured me the foreign company’s chairman was a Mongolian friend of hers.
On December 27, 2023, EE came to my city and, with my help, found a hotel to wait for her boyfriend. At dinner the next day, her boyfriend, who was married, confirmed the job details, saying it was easy and very good, and his brother had done it successfully. This made me feel more comfortable.
We met three more times for short lifts in the capital when I was traveling back to my city. On May 16, 2024, EE told me my work request was approved and that we would be traveling to South America.
On May 29, 2024, she urgently called me, saying her boss had already booked and paid for all the travel arrangements for the two of us, as the others had refused last minute. Despite being 630 km away and busy with a new construction job, her continuous calls eventually convinced me to go.
The Trip and Forced Trafficking
We flew from Mongolia, transiting through Hong Kong and Dubai, before arriving in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We then took a bus to another city in South America. At the hotel, I slept due to exhaustion while she went out.
The next morning, she revealed the truth: the job was to swallow plastic balls and transport them in my stomach. Inside the balls were drugs. I was shocked, refused, and demanded to go home.
She immediately threatened me, stating her boss was a gangster/Mafia man and that I had to repay the 30 million tugrug spent on my travel and accommodation immediately, which I could not do. She also told me they would not return my passport.
Feeling alone, unable to communicate in the local language or English, and with no money or working phone, I felt I had no choice. She pressured me, saying the boss was angry. She claimed the job was not difficult, that she and others had done it three times, and that I only had to expel the balls in Hong Kong, where she would pay me, and the ordeal would be over. She also gave me unknown medicine to manage the process.
We flew from South America to Dubai, then to Hong Kong. During the flight, I felt ill and expelled some of the balls in the airplane bathroom and gave them to her.
On June 6, 2024, we arrived at the Hong Kong airport. A customs officer stopped us for a check. Feeling ill, I used my transit application on my mobile to ask for help, telling them to take me to the hospital. Four days later, all the remaining plastic balls were expelled. I am now detained in a correctional institution in Hong Kong.
Current Situation and Reflection
I am currently detained at the correctional institution for the transportation of 1.510 g of dangerous drugs.
My current situation is extremely difficult. I have been detained for over eight months and have no knowledge of the local languages (Chinese, Cantonese, or English is very poor). I have no friends or family here and have only been able to contact my family in Mongolia twice by phone. I am unfamiliar with the prison system and often feel alone, fearful, and unable to manage.
I have lost a significant amount of weight—from 140 kg to approximately 110 kg—due to the poor quality and lack of food I can eat. I am bored, lack work and salary, and rely on no visitors for simple daily necessities. I am often afraid, especially after witnessing the death of a cellmate, which made me fear I would never return home to my wife and son.
I deeply regret letting myself be used by criminal drug traffickers out of a simple desire to earn more money for my family. I was naive and failed to recognize the suspicion around the promise of such easy, high-paying work. I realize I have destroyed the peace of my family.
I am now fully aware of the scale of the drug problem and the suffering it causes. I wish to use my experience to advise others against the lure of quick, easy money and to fight against drugs and drug traffickers so that others do not suffer as I have. My faith as a Catholic and my personal suffering compel me to fight this terrible problem.
Note: This post is a combination of two letters that have been edited for grammar and readability. See the original letters images below.
