Cape Town - A former drug mule who travelled to Brazil, Dubai, and Tanzania, and had to swallow plastic capsules to bring them into the country, but was lucky to escape punishment for trafficking, is reaching out to publishers to tell her story of redemption.
The mother of four from Mitchells Plain, who goes by the alias *Shireen, spent a few years behind bars for fraud and cleaned up her act over the past two years.
Between 2009 and 2016, she worked as a drug mule for foreign nationals and was lucky not to be nabbed.
From Gucci to Lacoste and living it large in flats and hotels in Sea Point and countries across the world, the 39-year-old said her life story was a lesson for young women who fell into the trap of drugs, sex and trafficking.
“Today, I live in a Wendy house, I got rid of the stuff I got such as the Lacoste clothes and fancy bags because that was not money that I had worked for, it was blood money,” she said.
During an exclusive interview with the Weekend Argus, she revealed that she would earn between R50 000 to R150 000 per drug shipment, and on her last trip she managed to get away with R500 000 and three diamonds which she later got rid of.
Shireen said was an innocent 21-year-old who became addicted to drugs after the death of her parents and landed on the streets, living in the town centre shopping mall, which is overrun by foreign nationals who operate a drug-trafficking ring there.
Known as “Bongos”, the dealers have evaded arrest and conviction and continue their drug operations. “The
Bongos used to buy me food and nice things, they were grooming me while I was sleeping in the town centre.
“I was told I look like a girl from Brazil and that I could work for them taking packages over (to that country), and was later told it would be drugs.”
On her first trip, she had to transport drugs from Cape Town to Argentina and was paid R50 000 in cash. She had never set foot inside an airport before.
“I travelled via an aeroplane to São Paulo to Brazil where I stayed for two weeks in a hotel. I was given a passport which was arranged for me. When I arrived back at the airport, someone was waiting for me, everything was arranged (so) they did not search my bag for the cocaine.”
During one of her riskiest travels, she had to swallow 75 parcels of cocaine capsules. She had to be careful not to lose the merchandise, even while in the air.
“It took me two hours to swallow 75 plastic capsules but it took seven days for the capsules to come out.
“I had travelled from Cape Town to Tanzania and Dubai and back again and while on the return flight, one of the plastic capsules slipped out in the loo.
“But I was prepared as I was told to wash the capsules if they came out and swallow them,” she recalled.
She said the Tanzanians who she had worked with, were well organised and connected with corrupt Home Affairs officials at the airport. “There was always someone waiting for me.”
But in 2016, Shireen decided she had had enough, knowing her luck was running out when she was asked to transport R500 000 from OR Tambo International Airport to Cape Town, and managed to get away before doing the shipment.
“I spent a month in a hotel in Sea Point and gave away the diamonds to someone I knew and stored the money at an old-age home, where I had known someone and later there was nothing left,” she said.
“I never felt fear because I told myself I know what I must do but in the end I began telling myself that this is wrong, that this is blood.
Shireen is now reaching out to a publisher in order to tell her story.
“I want to tell young women not to make the mistakes I made and not to fall into this trap but I need help in finding someone who can write my story for me and have it published.”
Her children are all in the care of relatives.
Charles Julies, a former police officer who used to be part of the Missing Persons Unit and runs Charlies Protection Monitors, said Shireen’s story was an eye-opener for women; and warned that drug trafficking cases could also be linked to cold cases where persons were arrested and imprisoned.
“This woman reached out to me to tell her story and there are not many like her who have been so lucky.
“They get arrested and imprisoned in a foreign country under a false name and surname,” he said.
*Shireen is not her real name.