I found this story pretty disturbing, and I'm not sure how I feel about what she could have or should have done. Your thoughts?
Sunshine island's deadly trade
By Christine Jeavans
BBC News, Drake Hall prison, Staffordshire
The majority of foreign women in UK jails are there on drugs offences. Here, one Trinidadian woman explains why she risked her life and liberty by swallowing cocaine to smuggle into Britain.
When the men approached Sonia Joseph* and said they had a job for her she was pleased.
The single mother-of-six had had trouble making ends meet since moving to a village near Port of Spain, Trinidad, two years earlier.
She knew the two men - they had helped her out when she was between jobs, organising a car to take her children to school, sometimes bringing her food.
"I assumed that was a favour, a friendly gesture because they knew my cousins," she said. "I thought they were safe."
But what Sonia did not realise was that after two years spent winning her confidence, the men now required payment-in-kind for their "favours".
Threats
The job, the men explained, meant swallowing packages of cocaine powder, tightly wrapped in latex and then going on a journey - she was not told where.
"I said 'I can pay some other way, through work'. They said 'it is not an option, you owe us.'"
If she did not comply, she was told, "anything might happen" to her children between home and school.
"This guy said 'If you want proof of what we can do, this young man we know, he was shot and he died, there was no investigation'. That frightened me."
A few days later Sonia, who was then 34, was taken to a strange house, shut in a room and was given 100 thumb-sized pellets to swallow.
Each of them contained well over the 1.2 grams of pure cocaine doctors consider to be a lethal oral dose.
She was told to wash them down with Coca-Cola. Three men stood guard and every three hours another man would come to check she was getting on with the task.
"It was frightful to be swallowing these things, it was horrible. I felt I was going to be sick but they gave me some black coffee. I had only taken 20 and they said I had three hours to take the other 80."
Sonia was also given a list of answers to learn by heart to prepare her for questioning by immigration officials at her destination.
Nervous
When she had finally managed to ingest all 100 packages she was put on a flight to London with another man whom she was to pretend was her common law husband.
She was told not to eat on the flight although she did anyway, little knowing that eating stimulates gastric juices which can burn through the latex and cause the bags to burst. Fortunately, this did not happen.
Her companion was "very nervous and sweating and pacing up and down", she said.
"He don't know me and I don't know him, we had no conversation and he was making me more nervous. My thought was never off getting through [customs]."
On arrival at Heathrow, the pair's anxiety was spotted and they were taken for urine tests. At this point Sonia cracked and confessed.
"When they stripped us, this customs officer said to me 'If you have anything it's better that you declare it now rather than go through the X-ray and make it harder for yourself'.
"She asked me if I have children and she told me the things that drugs do to people over here and it was at that point that I told her."
Sonia was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. She has served 27 months and will be returning home in a matter of weeks, under a procedure by which foreign prisoners are deported at the point at which they would get parole were they British nationals.
Two of her six children - the youngest of whom was just a baby when she left - have been abused since she has been away and the family almost ended up in care.
On returning to Trinidad, Sonia wants to get a clerical job but also to work in the community, warning other single mothers about her experiences.
"The separation from my loved ones, two years of my children's life, at the end it's not worth it."
*Names have been changed for this article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ws/4252138.stm
Forced to transport drugs she had to swallow...
1998ls400
The differing perspectives, interpretations, perceptions, etc. are pretty interesting.
Today, I saw this young child (5-6 yo), sitting in the front seat of an suv, grandma is in the back, took off his seat belt, putting his head on the door/window as if he was sleeping while the mom did NOTHING 
Linear Mode
