(VitalNews.org) – British model Modou Adams has been sentenced to nearly seven years’ imprisonment in a Peruvian jail after being caught with nearly six-and-a-half pounds of cocaine in his suitcase. The market value of his haul, destined for the streets of Britain, would have been close to $360,000. The model-turned-drug-mule was rumbled after being searched while attempting to board a flight to the United Kingdom in the Jorge Chavez International airport on September 30. Just 24-hours after his arrest, he faced trial and accepted a plea deal.
The Brit, who previously enjoyed sharing tantalizing updates of his jet-set lifestyle to his social media followers under the username “boywholives”, admitted to smuggling the drugs and was sentenced to six years and eight months of jail time. Prosecutor Lincoln Fuentes claimed that this was not Adams’ first experience acting as a drug mule, alleging that Adams had previously managed to smuggle drugs out of the country in a similarly prepared suitcase.
Cocaine has a value of approximately $3,600 per kilogram (or roughly $1,630 per pound) if sold in Peru. This figure increases dramatically when sold in the British market, where it is also illegal. Drugs runners such as Adams are generally paid up to $7,200 for each drug run, as well as having tourism expenses paid for in order to make them look like genuine sightseers. Fuentes took the opportunity to warn any other potential drug smugglers not to attempt to traffic narcotics through the country, highlighting the severity of the penalties in comparison to the pay-off.
Adams, 25, is not the first British national to have fallen afoul of Peru’s strict anti-trafficking laws. One infamous case involved two 20-year-olds, Michaela McCollum and Melissa Reid. The women became known as “the Peru Two” after being caught attempting to smuggle over 24 pounds of cocaine out of Lima airport. After striking a plea deal, they, like Adams, were each sentenced to six years and eight months of jail time.
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