Locked up in Hong Kong: Peruvian woman jailed for 8 years says she was tricked into smuggling drugs

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Peruvian Zoila Lecarnaque Saavedra served eight years in a Hong Kong prison after she was found guilty of smuggling drugs into Hong Kong from Peru in 2013. Saavedra claims she was hired by a woman who offered her US$2,000 to travel to the city to pick up a shipment of tax-free electronics that would be sold for profit back home. But upon arrival, Hong Kong customs officials found liquid cocaine in her luggage. Saavedra says she pleaded guilty to drugs smuggling in hopes of getting a reduced sentence. Defence lawyers say many of the convicted drug mules in Hong Kong prisons are women, and most were desperate for money and duped or coerced by smuggling kingpins who rarely see the inside of a cell.

This video has been revised after clarifications from the source, with this version noting that Saavedra says she was unaware she was smuggling drugs and that she was convicted of carrying illegal substances into rather than out of the city

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