(TotalConservative.com) – A traveling couple ended up imprisoned in Germany for 38 days after a luggage mixup roped them into a drug smuggling investigation.
A couple in their forties, Jeanne Paolini and Kátyna Baía, were arrested in Frankfurt after authorities suspected they were involved in an international drug smuggling ring after 43 kg of cocaine was discovered in luggage labeled with their names. Brazilian authorities investigated the matter and discovered that the couple was supposedly caught up in an international smuggling gang’s activity after airport staff swapped the labels on their baggage at São Paulo International Airport.
Security camera footage captured the moment staff removed the checked-in bags from the airport carousel, removed the labels, and then attached those labels to a different piece of luggage that contained the drugs. When Paolini and Baia arrived in Germany, they were detained under suspicion of drug smuggling and locked up for 38 days.
Paolini told reporters that the “experience was an enormous shock” for both women and their families, who planned a weeks-long trip around Europe. She said German authorities took her “to a windowless room,” asked her to place her hands on the wall, and then handcuffed her. When Paolini questioned why she was being arrested, she could only make out the word “cocaine” as the officers spoke in German.
The couple said it took them “at least four hours” to figure out what actually happened, after which they went to prison for a day. Following a hearing, the two women were then locked up for 38 days in a female prison outside of Frankfurt. Paolini said they endured multiple strip searches, which she described as “extremely humiliating,” and could hear “women crying” from other cells.
Paolini added that she and her partner could’ve avoided the situation if their suitcase “had been protected,” and advised anyone traveling “to be very safe.” According to their defense lawyer, the couple’s luggage tags were changed on purpose by gang members attempting to smuggle the cocaine.
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