Filipina drug mule who carried HK$1.77m worth of cocaine to Hong Kong while pregnant jailed for 14 years
Judge said sentence was as ‘lenient as possible’ for woman who gave birth to baby boy while in custody
A Filipino woman, who carried more than 1.3kg of cocaine to Hong Kong while she was four months pregnant, was jailed for 14 years 8 months at the High Court this morning.
Vergara Catherine Bustillo, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking dangerous drugs, with an estimated street value of more than HK$1.77 million, from Manila to Hong Kong on February 2 this year.
She gave birth to a baby boy when she was in custody pending for the sentence.
Mr Justice Kevin Zervos, sentencing, said “I have been as lenient as possible.”
He said he had considered the hardship that Bustillo had gone through and that she would miss the chance to see her son grow up while she was in jail. He added that Bustillo could have faced up to 16 years given the quantity of the drugs.
The court heard that Bustillo worked as customer service representative for a software company in Manila and came to Hong Kong to buy clothes for the baby and because she wanted to visit a church.
