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Before Jamie Méndez’s flight even landed in Christchurch with more than $ 800,000 worth of cocaine in padded jackets, customs officials were suspicious.
The 44-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona in the United States had recently flown from her hometown to go on vacation to Africa for 12 days.
For his return trip, he would stop over in Singapore, before landing at Christchurch International Airport on September 23. Then she would fly to Los Angeles before she got home.
The “rather strange” travel pattern raised a red flag with authorities, Customs Investigations Manager Bruce Berry said. Stuff Thursday, shortly after Méndez was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail for attempting to smuggle cocaine.
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* A woman allegedly hid 2.5 kg of drugs in jackets at Christchurch airport.
“Customs identified her early on as a possible person of interest,” Berry said.
They then searched his suitcase after New Zealand customs officials noticed inconsistencies on the X-ray screen. Inside the suitcase were five padded jackets containing 2.5kg of cocaine, with a street value of $ 875,000. .
Berry said Mendez told officers that he had bought the jackets at a market in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The reason for his unusual flight pattern was that he wanted to break up the trip with stopovers. Berry called his explanation “implausible.”
“This was a pretty basic attempt at smuggling drugs, look at the red flags that were everywhere,” Berry said.
“But let’s be clear, his motivation for traveling to New Zealand was to import drugs, and it was motivated by greed.”
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Jamie Hudson Méndez was arrested at the Christchurch Airport in September 2019 after she tried to smuggle 2.5 kilograms of cocaine into New Zealand.
Text messages found on Méndez’s phone showed that he was negotiating payment for carrying the drugs; allegedly demanded $ 15,000. Berry said that comprehensive investigations had not yet been conducted to identify the person, believed to be abroad, with whom he was arranging the import.
“There is a certain degree of cheekiness in this attempt when you look at all the curious factors, but the key point is that we are always looking. With the selection, we are always looking for indicators of risk, some are obvious and some are not.”
Judge Stephen O’Driscoll previously said that the factual summary mentioned a “disturbing” video allegedly depicting the murder of Méndez’s sister-in-law, found on her phone after her arrest, suggested “pressure and coercion” from a network of drug dealers to smuggle cocaine.
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Jamie Hudson Mendez was a wife, mother and caregiver before she became involved in smuggling illegal drugs across borders.
Mendez’s attorney, Pip Hall QC, said the video had caused significant emotional distress for Mendez and that he was now suffering from flashbacks and “partial symptoms” of post-traumatic stress disorder.
He said that Méndez, who appeared via audiovisual link and intended to return to the United States when he could, was receiving trauma counseling for the problems and courses in prison to reduce his risk of recidivism.
Judge O’Driscoll said Mendez suffered from a host of chronic health problems, including seizures, high blood pressure, asthma, low back pain, and significant arthritis in both knees.
New Zealand Customs prosecutor Chris White said that while there was no evidence that Méndez received money for her smuggling, it was most likely due to her being caught at the border.
Mendez’s mother, Kathleen Hudson, previously said Stuff that until a few years ago her daughter had an apparently normal life.
She had an uneventful childhood, married her high school boyfriend, worked as a caregiver, and had a son.
She was married for more than a decade before divorcing in 2012.
This most recent crime is not the first time that Méndez has become involved in the dark underground movement of transnational drug trafficking.
In 2018, she was imprisoned in France when she arrived in Paris on a flight from South Africa with heroin in her luggage.
After spending 13 months in a French prison, she was released on June 17 last year and sent back to the United States.
O’Driscoll said the previous two convictions would mean that “every law enforcement agency in the world will now have it on their radar.”
