Two women used as couriers for a drugs smuggling network have been acquitted by Audiencia de Málaga because they were under the impression that they were to be smuggling diamonds and not cocaine.
The women had offered to travel to Venezuela on the assumption they were smuggling diamonds and stated that they would have refused the deal if they had known their cargo was cocaine.
The women were arrested on June 10th 2009 after returning to Spain from South America. An inspection of their suitcases resulted in the discovery of 2.7 kilos of cocaine.
The prosecution was asking for a custodial sentence of ten years and six months.
Two other members of the smuggling network, which paid people €3,000 plus flights, accommodation and clothing for their co-operation, were sentenced to nine years and one day in prison for crimes against the public health. They were also ordered to pay €151,442.86 compensation, this amount being twice the value of the drugs seized.