An appeals court in Szeged has sentenced a Swiss national to five-and-a-half years in prison for attempted drug smuggling. The defendant was convicted of trying to smuggle 13 kilogrammes of marijuana from Kosovo to Switzerland via Hungary. Under the binding ruling, she is to be expelled from Hungary for a period of six years upon her release. The woman had amassed 1,800 Swiss francs’ worth of debt which she could not pay back to her creditor. To settle her debts, she accepted a job to move drugs from Kosovo to Switzerland.
The defendant had been given a car by her client which had been stashed with drugs. The woman drove to Kosovo via Hungary on March 24, 2018. The woman was on his way back to Switzerland from Kosovo when her car was checked by excise officers at the Röszke border station in southern Hungary on April 2. The officers inspecting the vehicle became suspicious of the odour of the air freshener emanating from the car. The inspection revealed a hidden compartment behind the back seat containing 13 packets of marijuana. In its ruling, the Szeged Court of Appeals upheld the first-instance conviction of drug possession.
MTI
