I am Mexican and I work as a professional photographer in Mexico City. I have been doing this work for more than 30 years. My business is producing annual calendars for companies or factories, showing the most professional side of their work.
A few months before coming to Hong Kong, I did a job for a tourist company that had purchased some ships from a factory in America. I carried out the work for the company’s annual calendar, with images of a shipyard in the city of Marseille, France. I also took a trip on the ship to understand its function. I did all this a few months before coming to Hong Kong.
If you check my passport, you will see my travel history, as before carrying out the job, I made a trip to identify the places where the work would be done, and then returned to complete it. This process took me approximately four months to carry out — producing and finishing the images, presenting them to my clients and, if they were satisfied, printing the calendars.
I am explaining all this because this is long-term work and I do not work alone; I have about 15 people working in my business and we all have different roles. I mention this because an employee of mine — who is also part of my family — without my knowledge was engaged in other kinds of dealings, and set me up in this situation.
By April I had already booked my flight and was about to travel, but at that time it was not possible until the end of the month. I then set about researching other important locations in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia. Once I had this information, I was ready to travel because the client of this Mexican tourism company had opened the opportunity to travel to the East and needed promotional work.
In my checked suitcase, they found another case I did not recognise, containing a hidden compartment with a drug package.
As always, I set out to travel to ensure the images for my client’s next promotion. We also took the opportunity for me to learn a bit more about the region, starting with a trip to Hong Kong.
Whenever I travel, I am accompanied by a translator — but now technology makes it easier, as I have translator software on my own mobile phone.
My office secretary is in charge of everything and, as always, she arranged for someone to help me with the job. That person arrived in Hong Kong before me, but her trip was delayed and she was stuck in Paris.
I was also detained for 10 hours in Paris, and after the wait we flew on to Hong Kong. The person who was supposed to arrive first stayed in Paris, and I travelled alone to Hong Kong.
Upon arrival, as I was disembarking from the plane, a police officer stopped me, asked me questions and didn’t allow me to use my translator. He directed me to the baggage area, I picked up my suitcase, and I was detained at the exit checkpoint.
They searched me very thoroughly. I complied with everything the police asked of me. In my checked suitcase — which I had the key to — they looked through my things and found another case inside my luggage. I did not recognise it at the time. When they opened it, to my great misfortune, it contained a hidden compartment with a drug package.
They tested it and it turned out to be cocaine — a quantity I had never seen before in my life.
The police arrested me, asked for my phone to examine it, and I handed it over knowing it contained nothing to implicate me. But as the hours passed, the situation became more complicated.
I cooperated as much as I could, answering all the officers’ questions and requests, yet they still decided to detain me. And so here I am now — it has been two years.
I never imagined this could happen to me. Throughout my career, I have always had trustworthy people, and today I find myself in this situation.
One way or another, I am under arrest.
I am aware that I fell into a trap set by my secretary, as I had always completely trusted her to handle everything for my trips. She had been working with me and in my company for nearly 10 years. I trusted her completely — the daughter of a brother of mine, a good worker, serious, and efficient — but I never imagined this could happen to me. Throughout my entire career, I have always had trustworthy people, and today I find myself in this situation. I thank life that I have met you, as your visits are a great comfort to me in this prison.
I wish to let you know that today my younger daughter (32 years old) is running my business in Mexico, and she has ensured that I lack nothing. Here I have met you, and by good fortune I have also come to know people from a radio station and from a Spanish-speaking women’s association in Hong Kong who also help and visit us. I am learning English, taking Bible study courses from a school, and I study English with the course you have given me. I try to stay active with some daily exercise, I work in prison, earn money to eat a little better, and I make an effort not to be influenced by the good and bad people who are here with me in prison.
Today I am more grateful than ever for the help of your work team, and I offer my most sincere apologies to the court, to the judge, and above all to the citizens of Hong Kong for the trouble that has brought me here. Today I study, I work, and I remain the competent person I have been all my life. Here I exercise, I consider myself fortunate, but already at 56 years old, I am awaiting the arrival of my first male grandchild in my family. My most sincere apologies for the offense, and I hope in God and in the authorities that they will be benevolent with me and keep me here for as little time as possible.
Note: This letter has been translated from its original in Spanish. Switch language to read the original letter.