Former HK Maid Arrested in India for Drug Smuggling

Image Caption: Cochin International Airport in Kochi, India. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Ajaykumarkappukuttan001

The Filipino woman was arrested after authorities allegedly found US$3.9 million worth of cocaine in her luggage

By ASIA TIMES STAFF 

A Filipino woman who has worked as a maid in Hong Kong was arrested for allegedly smuggling 4.7 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil to India.

On Monday, Jonna De Torres, 36, was traveling from Sao Paolo to Kochi, a city in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala, via Muscat. She was arrested at Cochin International Airport after authorities allegedly found 250 million rupees (US$3.9 million) worth of cocaine in her luggage, The Hindu reported.

Bottom of Form

According to the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Torres previously visited Brazil in 2015. She recently went to Sao Paolo for five days before arriving in Kochi, the first time she had visited India.

The NCB said Torres admitted that she had been hired for US$4,000 to smuggle the drugs to India. She also admitted to smuggling drugs on several other occasions, The New Indian Express reported.

According to the Express report, Torres holds a Philippine passport issued in 2013. She had worked as a domestic worker in Hong Kong.

Torres will be in the custody of the NCB pending her trial at a Magistrate Court.

The NCB said this was the third drug-smuggling case in Kochi in the past two months, and in all of the incidents, the drugs were supplied by a racket based in Sao Paolo.

In India, the maximum penalty for drug smuggling is a 20-year prison term and a fine of 200,000 rupees.

(Source: atimes.com)