The trial of a 54-year-old Australian grandmother, accused of trafficking 1.5kg of methamphetamine, has begun in Shah Alam. If guilty, she faces a mandatory death penalty by hanging.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was arrested December 7 at KLIA with the drugs stuffed into the lining of the backpack she was carrying. She was flying from Melbourne to Shanghai, via Kuala Lumpur.
Plot twist: she claims she knew nothing of the drugs, and is actually, the victim of an online love scam. It seems that in addition to being the capital of our own homegrown love scams, we’re a transit point for them as well.
The Sun writes that Pinto Exposto believed the bag to be filled with clothes, and was asked to carry it from Australia to China by a US soldier based in Afghanistan, a so-called Captain Daniel Smith.
The charming soldier had “made [her] feel loved, he made [her] feel wanted,” and would send photos of himself to the grandmother. Love poems were read, and songs were sung by him over the phone.
Pinto Exposto also says that Smith had asked to marry her in September 2013, at which point her relationship with her husband was “a bit sour.”
Wait. HOLD UP. Grandma, you’re married still?
Girl, this just got a whole lot messier, and you’re on trial for drugs trafficking with a mandatory death sentence, so that’s saying a lot.
The trial continues. Best of luck to you, and remember … don’t carry bags that aren’t packed by you.
