WILLEMSTAD – A 30-year-old woman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, eight of which are suspended, after being caught attempting to smuggle cocaine through Hato International Airport.

The woman did not appear in court to defend herself. According to the Public Prosecution Service, customs officers at Hato discovered 672 grams of cocaine hidden in her luggage. The drugs were concealed inside a toiletry bag filled with cosmetics.

The suspect claimed she had received the bag from an acquaintance the day before her scheduled flight to the Netherlands, with the request to deliver it to a family member. She insisted she was unaware that the bag contained narcotics.

The woman also stated that she frequently travels to the Netherlands for vacations and is well aware of the strict checks carried out at Schiphol Airport. “If I had known the bag contained drugs, I would never have taken it,” she told investigators, adding that she barely knew the acquaintance and did not even know where she lived.

The judge, however, pointed to the customs report noting that the bag was unusually heavy. He found it suspicious that the defendant failed to notice this and considered her explanation unconvincing.