Sydney mother faces execution if convicted of drug offences in Malaysia
An Australian mother of four who was said to be a victim of a US military romance scam faces mandatory execution if convicted of drugs offences in Malaysia. The woman from Liverpool said in Sydney that she fell for the scam after building an online relationship with a supposed US soldier.
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto is facing execution because a new law the Parliament recently passed has not been gazetted, lawyers explained. The 54-year-old told Malaysia's High Court earlier this year that she had an online relationship with a supposed Afghanistan veteran and US soldier named "Captain Daniel Smith.”
Exposto said he even asked for her hand in marriage in 2013. She added that her relationship with her husband was then "getting a bit sour,” and the soldier made her feel loved by singing a few times per day.
On December 2014, 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine was found in her luggage. She said she was lured into carrying the bag, which she believed contained only clothing of a supposed acquaintance of the soldier. She carried the bag from Shanghai to Melbourne, transiting through Kuala Lumpur.
The drugs were sewn into the bag’s compartment. She maintained that she never knew they were there and even volunteered to put her bag through Customs' screening at Kuala Lumpur. The former social worker in East Timor has never wavered in her account, defence lawyers said.
According to defence lawyer Shafee Abdullah, Exposto's testimony revealed what she thought was a relationship with a fictional Smith. He told reporters that there are possibly other people, most women, who have been conned in the same situation.
Abdullah described the Aussie woman as a “responsible mother.” She told him that she is against illegal drugs, and that if any of her four children get involved in drugs she would kill them herself. Her family member and friends from Sydney are shocked by her arrest.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has previously warned about love scams, saying that scammers would go to "great lengths to gain your interest and trust, such as sharing personal information and even sending you gifts.” It also warned about other scams that involve dating and romance, get-rich investments, identity theft, money transfers, jobs and employment. Some even create fake websites to get people’s money or card details. Meanwhile, the US military said the scams are a "growing epidemic,” the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
