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Brazilian sentenced to 11 years for cocaine trafficking
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Illustration of drugs wrapped in plastic packets (Shutterstock/Africa Studio)
T
he Denpasar District Court in Bali sentenced on Thursday Brazilian national Manuela Vitoria De Araujo Farias to 11 years’ imprisonment for bringing drugs into Bali. The sentence was lighter than the 12 years demanded by prosecutors.
The 19-year-old was declared guilty of attempting to smuggle 3.6 kilograms of cocaine into the resort island. Judges also found her guilty of smuggling 0.72 grams of the psychotropic drug clonazepam.
"We declare the defendant guilty of importing type-one narcotics weighing more than 5 grams and importing psychotropic drugs as regulated in the Narcotics Law and Psychotropic Law," said presiding judge I Gede Putra Astawa.
The panel of judges also fined the defendant Rp 1 billion (US$67,186). "If she fails to pay the fine, it will be substituted with a further year in prison," Astawa said.
Farias who attended the trial online from Kerobokan women prison decided to take the seven days available to her to decide whether she will appeal.
Farias was arrested upon her arrival at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Jan. 1, after airport customs officers found several plastic packages of cocaine in her two suitcases.
In a press conference following the arrest. Bali Police chief Insp. Gen Putu Jayan Danu Putra said cocaine users were mostly foreigners because of its high price.
In February, local authorities extradited alleged drug trafficker Antonio Strangio, an Italian with dual Australian nationality, who was detained in Bali earlier in the month, to Italy.
Interpol had issued a red notice for Strangio, 32, in 2016 over the sale of 160 kilograms of marijuana and his links to Italy's Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, according to Bali Police.
Strangio, wanted for the production and trafficking of drugs, was arrested at Ngurah Rai airport on Feb. 2 after being on the run since 2016. He had fled to Australia, from where as a citizen he could not be extradited. (dre)
