Drug mule ‘co-operated with authorities’

PRETORIA – A Bangkok court jailed South African Nolubabalo ‘Babsie’ Nobanda for 15 years yesterday for smuggling cocaine in her dreadlocks.

International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela said Nobanda was also fined N$250 000.
“Initially, she was given a 30-year sentence but that term was reduced because she was co-operative with the authorities. They reduced the jail sentence by half,” said Monyela.
He said the department was in contact with Nobanda’s family in South Africa.
Nobanda, from Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape, was arrested at the Bangkok International Airport in December for trying to smuggle cocaine from Brazil to Thailand.
Police found 1.5kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of $150 000 (about N$1.2m) in her dreadlocks. – Nampa-Sapa

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