Five years for South African drug 'mule'

A South African woman who was used as a “mule” and a “plaything” by drug traffickers has been jailed for five years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Rochell Pieters (aged 27) was caught bringing in €140,000 of cocaine to Dublin Airport from Brazil. When customs officers found the drugs in her bag she said, “they told me they wouldn’t do this.”

Pieters of Salt River, Colleridge Road, Capetown pleaded guilty to possession of two kilograms of cocaine at Dublin Airport on November 18, 2008.

Garda Liam Mangan told prosecuting counsel Mr Sean Guerin BL, that Pieters arrived in Dublin from South America via Madrid. She was stopped by customs and she claimed she was here to visit her boyfriend. A swab was taken from her luggage and a scan indicated she was carrying cocaine.

“They told me they wouldn’t do this”, she said. When asked who told her, she replied, “they all did.” She was arrested and in interview she initially claimed she did not know there were drugs in her bag.

She said she had began seeing a man in South Africa who offered her the opportunity to go travelling. Arrangements were made for her to fly to Ireland and then to Brazil. In Brazil she met several more men who told her she had to fly back to Ireland.

When she said she wanted to go back to South Africa they said the flight arrangements meant she had to go through Ireland. She said they swore to her that “they were not setting me up” however she suspected there might be drugs in her suitcase.

Defence counsel, Mr Conor Devally SC, said Pieters had no previous convictions and had a seven-year-old girl at home who lived with her former partner.

He said she was seen as a “drug mule and plaything” for the men who gave her the drugs. Mr Devally submitted she did not make money from drug trafficking and had been homeless for a time in South Africa.

Judge Katherine Delahunt described Pieters as “a vulnerable and naive woman but not a stupid woman” and said she knew the consequences of her actions.