Japanese court convicts Australian who says she was tricked into smuggling drugs

Donna Nelson, in custody for nearly two years, was arrested in 2023 with about 2kg (4.4 pounds) of hidden phenylaminopropane

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Family members of Australian citizen Donna Nelson walk out from the Chiba District Court after the opening day of the trial over Nelson for attempting to import drugs into Japan. Photo: AP

Published: 7:17pm, 4 Dec 2024

A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced an Australian woman who says she was tricked amphetamines into the country to six years in prison, despite accepting her testimony that she was the victim of an online romance scam.

The Chiba District Court said it found Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, guilty of violating the stimulants control and customs laws. It ordered her to pay a fine of 1 million yen (US$6,671) in addition to serving a prison term.

Nelson was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo on January 3, 2023 when customs officials found about 2kg (4.4 pounds) of phenylaminopropane, a stimulant, hidden under a false bottom in a suitcase she was carrying as checked luggage.

Nelson, 58, told the court that she did not know that drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she thought she loved and hoped to marry.

The man, whom she met online in 2020, told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business. In 2023, he paid to travel to Japan via Laos, and asked her to collect dress samples from an acquaintance in Laos, her lawyers said.

She was supposed to meet the man in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.

The Chiba District Court found Donna Nelson from Australia guilty of violating the stimulants control and customs laws, and ordered her to pay a fine of 1 million yen (US$6,671) in addition to serving a prison term. Photo: AP