TOKYO: Sydney woman, Kalynda Davis, the daughter of one of the top former police officers, has been caught by China Customs and is expecting a death penalty on smuggling 75 kilograms of drug “ice” out of the country. As China’s drugs law states that anyone who would be smuggling more than 50 kg of drugs out of the country would subject to death penalty.
A family member reported Ms Davis missing from their two-storey Glenmore Park home on November 5, only to find out several days later that she was in custody in China. She was arrested with Peter Gardner, a 25-year-old from Richmond in Sydney’s north-west, and charged with smuggling a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine from Guangzhou city to Australia.
Friends suggested that Ms Davis had only recently met Mr Gardner and the bizarre turn of events were extremely out of character.
One friend, Cassandra Hoegal, posted online that she “got caught up with the wrong guy”.
Ms Davis was a talented basketball player, making it to state representative teams with the Penrith Panthers and once posting on a social media profile that basketball was “my life”.
Another friend who played netball with Ms Davis said it was “devastating” and “so very out of character”.
She went to a Christian school and was raised in a well-off family in Sydney’s west. Her father Larry, an ANZ banker, did not return calls on Friday and a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would not be commenting.
Her Instagram and Face book profiles, which she used prolifically to share photos from music festivals and basketball games, were shut down.
A NSW police spokesman said Ms Davis was reported missing to them on November 5 and when she was arrested in China the matter was referred to DFAT.
The two are the latest in a spate of arrests of Australians on drug-related charges, some whom are potentially facing the death penalty.
DFAT is currently extending consular assistance to nine Australians who are detained on serious drug charges.The flurry of arrests prompted DFAT to issue an updated travel advisory in September warning travelers of China’s severe drug laws, and the “substantial risks involved in carrying parcels for others which may conceal narcotics”.
“We have some concerns that there may be a pattern in the cases of some of the individuals being arrested,” a spokesman said at the time.
The arrests have been centered on the southern province of Guangdong, a notorious hub for methamphetamine production and home to an anti-drug sweep codenamed Operation Thunder, which has netted hundreds, including dozens of foreigners.
