11 Jul 2014

Brazilian drug mule jailed 5 years

10:14 pm on 11 July 2014

A Brazilian tourist has been sentenced in the Manuakau District Court to five years' jail on Friday for trying to smuggle $650,000 worth of cocaine into New Zealand.

Customs officers arrested Lucas Pereira at Auckland Airport in May this year after finding nearly two 1.8kg of the Class A drug hidden in the lining of his suitcases.

The head of the Customs investigation, Maurice O'Brien, says Pereira was approached at a party in Brazil and offered money and plane tickets to act as a drug mule.

Mr O'Brien said criminal syndicates don't care about the consequences drug mules face and Pereira has learned this the hard way.