A mother-of-five has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after smuggling 7kg of drugs into Taiwan.
Debbie Voulgaris, 58, from Melbourne, was arrested at Taoyuan International Airport on December 10, 2023, after cocaine and heroin were found in plastic bags inside her luggage.
According to evidence presented to the Taoyuan District Court, Voulgaris picked up the suitcase containing the drugs – which had a street value of $40million NT – in Malaysia on 8 December 2023.
She flew to Taiwan two days later, with the intention of handing the drugs over to others once she arrived.
However, she was stopped by customs officers after authorities detected the packages in her luggage during an X-ray inspection.
Voulgaris initially vehemently denied that she knew about the drugs, before later claiming during pre-trial preparations that her ex-husband John was behind the scheme.
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