Who Do You Least Expect To Smuggle Drugs??
Never Too Old To Run Coke Across A Border
What does a drug smuggler look like? When you close your eyes and picture someone who is smuggling drugs, you probably imagine someone with shifty eyes and a nervous air about him – and you are likely imagining a “him”. However, an incident from 2015 has taught us that you can’t presume what a drug dealer or smuggler looks like. It’s the modern age after all, and anyone can do anything that they put their mind do. That’s what a 70-year old woman named Olive Fowler must have thought, because she had a plan for smuggling cocaine into the United States.
What Was Her Plan?
There are a number of reasons why Fowler probably thought she could get away with smuggling drugs from Guyana to the US. First, who would suspect someone who looks like a kindly grandmother? Second, well, read the first reason again. However, she did not consider just how nervous she might be when she was coming through the airport. According to reports, she was acting strangely when she arrived at JFK International.
Her behavior gained the attention of the authorities that wanted to talk with her. She seemed excessively nervous and started to sweat. She was unwilling to make eye contact with those who were talking with her. Because of her actions, they thought it would be a good idea to search her. They discovered that she was smuggling cocaine in her underwear and girdle. In fact, she had more than $73,000 worth of the drug on her.
Why Did They Search Her?
Normally, people are protected under the Fourth Amendment in the United States, meaning that they are safe from “unreasonable search and seizure”. However, when the authorities have reason to believe that something is amiss and they believe that there is a crime, they have the ability to search. While they did not have evidence of a crime in this case, there is an exception when it comes to those who are searching people at airports and at the border.
The Allure of “Easy” Money
Many people decide to turn to drug smuggling because they want to make fast and easy money. Of course, they do not always think things through and they aren’t always aware of just how serious it will be when they are caught. People have tried to use many different methods to get drugs through airports and across borders. They have tried to hide it in their genitals, they’ve swallowed balloons of heroin, and they’ve tried to hide it in normal packages. They all believe that they will be able to get away with it too, but most of the time, they are caught.
The protocols that are in place in the airports and the borders, along with the drug sniffing dogs, help to make it far more difficult for smugglers to traffic drugs. Of course, that’s not enough to stop people from trying, and from coming up with brand new and inventive ways to smuggle.
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