Japan court gives prison sentence to 'once love scam victim' for smuggling drugs

An Australian woman was sentenced to six years of imprisonment by a court in Japan after they found her guilty of smuggling methamphetamine into the country.

The woman claimed that she was a victim of an online romance scam, however, the court chose to ignore it.

The court found the woman, identified as Donna Nelson from Perth, guilty of smuggling 2 kg of the drug which was hidden beneath her suitcase's false bottom when she landed at Narita airport near Tokyo from Laos in January 2023.

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The prosecutors appealed court to give the woman a 10-year sentence and a $30,000 fine.

Woman claims she was unware about drugs

The 58-year-old said that she was not aware of the hidden drugs in the suitcase, which she said had been given to her by a man whom she had met on a social media platform in 2020 and plannedto get married.

Nelson said that she was instructed to take the suitcase to Japan and hand it to the man whoshe thought was her online lover.

The man, who was named as "Kelly" by Nelson, had said to her that he was a Nigerian man running a fashion business.

The man reportedly paid for her flight to Japan but did not show up when she arrived at Narita airport.

As per reports, the pair had shared numerous text messages with each other and spoken multiple times on video chats.

The prosecutors said that the case had links with an online romance scam, but insisted that the woman was aware of what she was carrying inside the suitcase when she departed for Laos.

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After she arrived in Japan, the bag was not declared by Nelson, and she claimed to be in the country on business.

“If she had nothing to hide, why didn’t she just tell the truth, and why didn’t she tell customs that she was going to see her fiancé?,” said prosecutor Ogata in the court, as reported by the ABC.

The woman's daughters, however, claimed that she was innocent. Speaking at the court, one of the daughters of Nelson, Kristal Hilaire, said that her mother was “a good person” in a hearing last month.

“She thought she was coming to Japan for her love story. She didn’t have any other intentions other than that. And that’s what we need everyone to know and hear at the court this week," Hilaire added.

(With inputs from agencies)