Woman now facing the death penalty after allegedly smuggling $70,000 of drugs in sex toy at an airport
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Johanes Christo/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A Peruvian woman could face the death penalty after being accused of attempting to smuggle $70,000 worth of drugs into Bali inside a sex toy and her underwear.
The 42-year-old woman, who has only be identified by the initials N.S, was caught after boarding a flight in Barcelona, Spain, with plans to travel to the Indonesian island of Bali.
She had a stopover in Doha, in Qatar, before arriving in Bali on 12 August.
Upon arrival, customs officials reported seeing her acting strangely, prompting them to alert police to her behavior.
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Bali police's narcotics unit director, who goes by the name Radiant, told reporters at a press conference: “Although the X-ray machine did not detect anything suspicious in her luggage, customs officers found her behavior suspicious and decided to conduct a body search...
"After consulting with the police, they did a further check on her."
During the investigation, authorities allegedly uncovered not only 1.4kg (3.1lb) of cocaine but also 43 ecstasy pills, which Radiant claimed had been carefully concealed in a number of places on the woman's body.
Per BBC News, he continued: "The narcotics were hidden in six plastic packages wrapped in black duct tape inside a green bra, three similar packages in black underwear, and a sex toy containing drugs, which was inserted into her body."
The woman claimed she had been paid $19,000 to smuggle the drugs into Bali, alleging she had been asked to do the task by someone she met on the dark web in April.
N.S has consequently been charged under Indonesia's drug laws, which are known to come with severe punishments.
If found guilty, the 42-year-old could face the death penalty.
A conviction could mean N.S becomes one of dozens of convicted drug traffickers who remain on death row in Indonesia, though the country has not carried out an execution since 2016.
During the last execution, one Indonesian and three Nigerian convicts were handed the penalty by way of a firing squad.
The woman's arrest comes just weeks after three British nationals avoided the death penalty after being arrested for smuggling cocaine into Indonesia. Lisa Stocker, 39, and her husband Jon Collyer, 38, were taken into custody at Bali's international airport after being caught with 994g of cocaine, while the intended recipient, Phineas Float, 31, was arrested a few days later.
Following their arrest in February, a judge determined the trio would instead only serve a 12 month sentence.