Police warn more Czechs targeted in overseas drug courier scams
Police in Czechia are warning of a rise in scams in which people are lured abroad and unknowingly used to smuggle drugs. The National Drug Control Centre says that elderly people are particularly vulnerable and at least two Czechs who fell for the scam, have ended up in foreign jails in the past year.
Last year, 140 Czechs were intercepted carrying some illegal addictive substance, and although denying knowledge of the contents of their luggage is a common defence strategy police say that criminal groups are increasingly targeting naïve, elderly people for their activities.
Fraudsters generally contact their victims by mail and under various pretexts –such as an inheritance or the promise of a personal relationship - persuade them to travel overseas, often covering all expenses. In the final step, drugs are planted in their luggage.
Jakub Frydrych, head of the National Drug Control Centre, says there are two confirmed cases of Czechs jailed abroad as a result of this scam this year and three other such cases are currently under investigation.
“Most often, these cases involve West African criminal groups engaged in various forms of criminal activity. Their portfolio includes investment fraud as well as recruiting couriers specifically to transport illegal drugs. Communication typically takes place electronically, via messaging platforms or email. In some instances, investigators have proven that the identities used—including email addresses and other personal data—were purchased on darknet marketplaces.”
In the country of destination, the price for the victim is generally high. One of the cases involved a 77 -year-old man, who received an email from a supposed lawyer informing him that he had inherited 5 million US dollars but needed to travel to Brazil to collect the money. The man’s family warned him against going and even contacted Interpol, but the elderly man was duped by fake certificates issued under the letterheads of foreign public and financial institutions and made the trip, accepting a suitcase described as containing gifts. Brazilian police discovered seven kilograms of cocaine inside his luggage at the airport. The man is now being prosecuted in Brazil.
In another case, a 57-year-old Czech woman fell victim to a similar scam. She was contacted via social media by a man who claimed to be a real estate agent from Canada. The fraudster paid for the woman’s flight to Hong Kong and her hotel stay promising a relationship. On her way back she was asked to take a suitcase back to Europe for his friend. Police found several kilograms of cocaine in the luggage and the woman now faces a minimum of 25 years in prison in Hong Kong, possibly even a life sentence.
Police note that while not all couriers are unaware of what they are carrying, people should keep in mind that everyone is personally responsible for what their luggage contains. And they warn that the anonymity of the internet, fake profiles on social networks and convincing replicas of documents created by AI have significantly increased the danger of unsuspecting individuals being drawn into crime.
