It is a risky business - one in 10 get caught. Customs officials have little sympathy for those who plead ignorance, saying it shows barely credible naivete in an age when travellers are constantly reminded not to carry anything which belongs to someone else. But the Howard League for Penal Reform, which estimates there are 2,000 drug smugglers in English and Welsh jails, says the sentences can be unnecessarily harsh. Often, these people are pawns. Long sentences create more victims and they do not get to the international criminal element who are behind the trafficking.
Drug smuggling is a very foolish thing to do, but couriers suffer disproportionately.
Khalifa accepts that if she had harboured any suspicions before the flight and said nothing, she would be culpable. She maintains she was duped. According to Khalifa, she met Cox when they were neighbours in Battersea, south-west London, seven years ago. The call about the holiday came in late October 1997 at a time when their friendship had cooled. At first, I said no.