South African Woman Arrested In Thailand With Cocaine Woven Into Her Dreadlocks

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A dreadlocked mule

Young SA woman bust in Thailand after her hair starts shedding 'cocaine'

On the day a South African woman was executed in China for smuggling drugs, a young Johannesburg student was arrested in Thailand for allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine hidden in her dreadlocks into the country. Nolubabalo Nobanda, 23, was arrested on Monday when police noticed a white substance in her hair shortly after she stepped off a Qatar Airways flight that reportedly originated in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and flew through Qatar on the Gulf to Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok.

On the day Nobanda was arrested, 35-year-old Janice Bronwyn Linden, of Durban, was executed by lethal injection in China after being caught trying to smuggle 3 kg of tik (crystal methamphetamine) into the country.

South Africa's ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson, yesterday confirmed Nobanda's arrest. International Relations spokesman Clayson Monyela said: "Our ambassador visited her in jail yesterday [but] unfortunately we are not going to interfere with that country's laws ... that's a sovereign country, we don't interfere," said Monyela.

Police allegedly found 1.5kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $150,000, hidden in Nobanda's dreadlocks. The former pupil of Victoria Girls' High School, Grahamstown, allegedly admitted to smuggling the drugs and told Thai officials that she had been hired to deliver them to a customer at a hotel in Bangkok. She was reportedly promised R16,000 on her return to South Africa.

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/12/13/a-dreadlocked-mule

The Times - Johannesburg, South Africa - Dec. 13, 2011

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Woman Caught Smuggling 1.5Kg Of Cocaine In Her Dreadlocks On Flight To Bangkok

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