94-year-old drug smuggler

[Jenn]

Comment: Hard to believe this one....

Not Your Normal Smuggler.

And here you have an industrious Mexican national, just simply on her way to
visit her friends and relatives across the international border in Arizona, all the
while passing through the port of entry at Nogales, Arizona, probably daily.
After all, she's 94 years-old so what harm could this Mexican do.

Well I'll be dipped. What's all that padded stuff affixed to her body underneath
her dress. Well, after the dress was removed, loooookeeee here at what we
have. Why it's only 10.45 pounds of marijuana strapped to her body. Can we
blame her? After all, she's probably just supplementing her Social Security
check she gets monthly at her P.O. Box on the American side. And one can't
help but wonder how many of these trips has she already made across the
border, toting 10 1/2 pounds of marijuana daily. Hang it up lady, as it's time
for you to retire permanently in El Reno!

[Jenn]

After all, she's probably just supplementing her Social Security
check she gets monthly at her P.O. Box on the American side.

Or she's one of the far too many elderly people who are tragically exploited by their loved ones and care givers.

[DemonWolf]

While it is certainly possible that she is a brazen drug runner, it is also possible that she has be forced or coerced to do this. I've been told that it is quite common for the cartels to take a hostage and threaten to kill him/her unless a relative acts as a mule.

[Chloe]

Not marijuana! What's the next plague these people will unleash upon our shores? Junior aspirin?

[Eddylizard]

Junior asparin is a dangerous substance which as far as I am aware has been withdrawn from sale. Advice on both sides of the pond is that asparin should never be given to children under 16* except under medical supervision due to it's link with the development of Reyes Syndrome. Cite.

So yeah, I'd be worried about people smuggling asparin labelled for children.

*ETA 16 here, the U.S. Surgeon General says 19.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Junior asparin is a dangerous substance which as far as I am aware has been withdrawn from sale. Advice on both sides of the pond is that asparin should never be given to children under 16* except under medical supervision due to it's link with the development of Reyes Syndrome. Cite.

So yeah, I'd be worried about people smuggling asparin labelled for children.

*ETA 16 here, the U.S. Surgeon General says 19.

We're told not to give it to children, but we still have low-dose, chewable aspirin for heart patients. I think Chloe was making a joke.

[Salamander]

Is it normal to want to find whoever wrote that charming diatribe and punch them in the mouth? Repeatedly?

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by franjava

I think Chloe was making a joke.

I think Eddie was too.

[Eddylizard]

It was supposed to be a joke, but I got too hung up on the facts when I startd writing it, so joke FAIL! Sorry.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

It was supposed to be a joke, but I got too hung up on the facts when I startd writing it, so joke FAIL! Sorry.

It's okay. No harm.

[nonnieyrissa]

Originally Posted by Salamander

Is it normal to want to find whoever wrote that charming diatribe and punch them in the mouth? Repeatedly?

Yes.


I know there is no way to know if you was exploited into doing this or not, but I don't care honestly if she wasn't. I feel so bad for her. On top of the fact that she probably was, she was also horribly embarrassed to have to stand in her underwear for photos I'm sure. I am not knocking the officers. I realize they are doing their job but I feel terrible for her.

[Eddylizard]

Here is the original CBP press release, which merely confirms that a 94 year old woman was indeed caught in March carrying 10.5 lbs of Marijuana strapped to her waist. Her claim when stopped initially was she was going shopping.

The rest of the OP claim that she was making near daily trips to visit friends and relatives, and was claiming US social security benefits from a PO box in the US is not mentioned here or in any news report I've managed to find; most of which are based on this press release. So the writer of the OP has information that the rest of the world isn't privy to, I haven't looked hard enough, no reliable agency wants to share those details or the writer has made those parts up entirely out of thin air.

Now as to the photos the press release and all of the reliable news reports have just the picture of the bags laid out (number 5 in the OP). I can fully understand that the photographs of her in various states of undress as the contraband was revealed were taken for legitimate evidentiary reasons to be shown to the jurors in court should it come to that. However I do not think that they were ever intended to be released for public consumption, and nor was there any need to. In fact out of the lesser reliable sources I've only found one with a single underwear shot.

I would compare it a way to a grisly crime where the SOCO's take lots of horrific photos, but sensibly only a few of the less sensitive ones are released to the press.

So If I was in charge of this agency or at least this branch I would like to know damned well how these photos of the woman in her underwear ended up the internet in what IMO is an unauthorised leak and I'd be asking the limited number of persons who had access to them some questions.

[Blatherskite]

I felt a moment of horror thinking that one of the set of hands may have belonged to a man, but looking at the second to last picture the profile looks like it could be female.

This is a case of funny-until-you-really-think-about-it. The concept of a nonagenarian drug-smuggler is unexpected enough to laugh about until you start to wonder at the circumstances. The pictures only hasten that mood whiplash for me. That whoever wrote the OP piece thinks this is not worth a second thought and worth the benefit of some anti-Mexican sentiment as well just makes it even sadder.