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A Brazilian sex worker who swallowed 1.2 kilograms of cocaine to smuggle it into the UK when money ran out during the pandemic has been jailed for more than four years.
Luan Irving Dos Santos Monteiro, 31, was arrested by border officials at Heathrow Airport on Christmas Eve last year on his way to Britain from Sao Paulo.
He was x-rayed to reveal he had ingested 101 packets of cocaine – with a market value of almost £ 100,000 – before catching the 11-hour flight.
His attorney, Graham Lloyd, told Isleworth Crown Court yesterday: “It really was a crime of desperation.
“If at any time during the long flight from Sao Paulo one of the packages had burst, it would probably have resulted in instant death.”
Mr Lloyd said Monteiro worked as a sex worker in Brazil, where more than 200,000 people have died from Covid-19.
(The x-ray showing cocaine packages in the Monteiro / NCA system)
“The situation is much worse than the situation here, and has led to financial devastation,” he said.
“It had bad consequences for her job as a sex worker.
“He tried to move his physical sex transactions to online sex services, and he told me that would be verified by his Twitter account where he advertises sex.”
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Monteiro says he uses drugs in his job and has accumulated a debt of around £ 2,000 which he hoped to pay off through drug trafficking.
Prosecutor Anisha Kiri said Monteiro claimed he was traveling to the UK for Christmas and New Years holidays and was greeted by a friend called Emily.
“The accused was taken for an x-ray which captured images indicating the presence of foreign objects in his abdomen,” she said.
“The accused then admitted to swallowing a hundred packets of what he believed to be drugs.”
She added that Monteiro’s passport showed he had made a series of international trips since January of last year. He was handed over by border officials to the National Crime Enforcement Agency, but made no comment during the interview.
Judge Edward Connell sentenced Monteiro to four years and two months in prison, telling him: “I accept that you were motivated by a drug debt that you had accumulated in Brazil and that pressure was put on you. and your family members.
Monteiro will serve half of his UK prison sentence before being released on license and will likely be sent back to Brazil.
Monteiro pleaded guilty to attempting to import Class A drugs.
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