BRASILIA: Brazil’s consulate in Auckland is telling its nationals that if they are caught smuggling drugs into New Zealand they will only serve a couple of years in prison, a court has heard.
The claim was made today during the sentencing of a 33-year-old Brazilian man who was stopped at the border last year with up to $1.68 million worth of cocaine in his suitcase.
Marlon Batista De Macedo stood in the dock in the Manukau District Court as a Portuguese translator told him he will serve at least half of his eight years and six months in a Kiwi prison.
He comes from a region of Brazil that has had a number of [drug] couriers in recent times.”
Maxwell-Scott added that Brazilian authorities here were giving people “unfair expectations” by telling them what punishment they could expect from the criminal justice system if caught importing drugs.
“The Brazilian consulate are telling them they’ll be released after two to three years and then be deported,” she said.
The maximum sentence for importing a class A drug for supply is life imprisonment. Judge Bergseng conceded that the sentence he handed down to Batista De Macedo would probably not act as any deterrence to those in a similar position who are persuaded to be used as drug mules.
Customs manager of passenger operations at Auckland Airport Peter Lewis said late last year that seven drug couriers had been arrested at Auckland Airport during a three-month period.
