Estonians Arrested in Peru on Drugs Smuggling Charges
Consular efforts are under way in the case of two young Tallinn women being held in Peru on charges of attempting to smuggle a large quantity of cocaine.
According to Peruvian news site peru21.pe, the women, 22 and 19, were arrested at Cuzco airport with around 5.815 kilograms of the drug.
Estonia does not have an embassy or consulate in Peru. "Despite that, the Foreign Ministry will attempt to get as much information as it can whenever Estonian citizens are detained and sentenced to prison time as to what their actual chances are of serving out their punishment in the Republic of Estonia," Lauri Bambus, undersecretary for legal and consular matters, told uudised.err.ee.
The Facebook pages of both women - neither had turned on privacy settings - were still up as of Sunday evening, and their posts were attracting a large number of comments from the general public, most of them recriminating.
Another Estonian, Varmo Tamm, has been serving time in Peru for a four-kilogram drug bust in 2009. There are 30 Estonians prison inmates in South America and several hundred around the world.