'Lucky' is a sufferer from a so-called ghetto in the Corporate Area. Her life has been hard, compounded by the fact that she has her aged and ailing parents and three young children to support.

Her life is one of daily 'hustling' to survive. She had shunned the world of pervasive narcotic drugs during all of her trying adult life, which had been marked more by privation, grief and tears than by laughter. But 14 months ago, overwhelmed by the hardships of her uncertain existence and the pressing demands of everyday life, Lucky succumbed to the temptation of the seemingly lucrative job of being a drug mule, ingesting cocaine and smuggling it from Jamaica to England.

It began with a chance encounter in which she linked up with a man who offered her an alternative to sitting on the sidewalk day after day stoning breeze. "Swallow some cocaine for me and you will get £1,000 pounds for every 30 (pellets ingested)," the man proposed.

Lucky thought about it, sweating at the risks, smiling at the prospect of the rewards; then she gave in. But she still had a very important test to pass. "Him give me a dummy (of a real cocaine pellet) and tell me to try it to see if I can manage it. If you don't swallow the dummy they won't make you go because that means that you can't manage. When I saw the dummy I started to laugh, because it looked so big like I couldn't swallow it.

"But when I remember what I was going through I said, 'Cho', and swallowed the two of them." Lucky said she belched constantly after that "but the next day I didn't even remember that I did swallow them."

She was in, and the man gave her $15,000 to take care of some domestic expenses and to spruce up herself before she set out for England.

The time came for her to go on the cocaine run. She was going to Manchester as a "fashion designer". "If you leaving tomorrow you have to start swallowing from this evening. Their own (the cocaine pellets) was wrapped in the good cling film".

(The small packets had been washed in bleach, soaked in a syrup-like solution and kept in a refrigerator for several days. Lucky says each packet of cocaine was tested. If a packet floated, that's a sign that it could unravel and leak in the stomach; the swallower would overdose instantly and die. If it sank, it was all right.)

"You can drink something as hot as ever with them (the cocaine pellets in the stomach) if they are wrapped properly. When they are not wrapped properly you can't drink anything, you can't eat anything. Their (her supplier's) own was in cling film and in gloves... which secure you.

"So I started (swallowing) the night and did 20; I couldn't do any more. Early the next morning, I went back to them (at a nice house in another section of town; some swallowing operations are done at hotels). But I never went home back because they don't make you go home back. The flight was 10:45 p.m. and I went to the airport at eight-something. By then I had swallowed 112 (cocaine pellets)."

(It is estimated that some drug mules can swallow a kilogram - 2.2 lb. - of cocaine or more).

"I didn't sleep the night, so as I go on the plane I started to sleep. It was uncomfortable but they train you that if you move or do this or do that you will draw suspicion. I don't want to go to prison, so although I feel uncomfortable I didn't move because I was doing it for my children and my parents."

Lucky said that before she swallowed the cocaine pellets she had to study information about the person who would meet her at the airport in England. She had spoken with the contact in England, telling her what she looked like and giving other details. The contact gave her similar information. So, if an immigration officer at the airport called in the person who is to receive her, they would be able to answer questions about each other. "Some people get busted because of this" lack of corroborating information, Lucky said.

At London Gatwick Airport, the immigration officer gave her a "white paper" to read and because of that she missed her connecting flight to Manchester which was an hour's flight away.

She eventually took a shuttle flight to Manchester airport where the people receiving her took her to their house and offered her a laxative and milk to make her bowels move. She took neither, but did go to the bathroom.

"When I went to the bathroom, they gave me a bucket and gloves and disinfectant. You have to clean them off and wash them off... I did 20 first. It took me about two days to finish it - (pass out the 112 cocaine pellets.)

"When I finished it, I expected to get £3,000-mash because they told me that I would get £1,000 for 30. They gave me £3,000. They had given me £300 to travel with. I asked them how come they gave me only £3,000 for the 112 and they said that some were smaller than some. I didn't bother fight with them..."

Lucky said that during her two weeks in Manchester she drove around with her contacts "while them a lick shot" - a reference to the process of 'cooking' the crack cocaine into 'whiskey' or the more potent and expensive 'brandy' form and selling it on the streets to 'smack heads' (coke addicts) by way of cellular phones.

Lucky says that 'smack heads' order the crack cocaine by cellular phone but because England is "full of (Close Circuit Television surveillance) cameras, the coke suppliers will drive to the delivery location, the buyer spots the car and follows it to an area where it is out of the range of the cameras and the transaction is made. "I just drive round with them even at 3 o'clock in the morning; I have no choice." She bought phone cards and called home to Jamaica daily to check on her parents and children and assure them that she was all right. She was allowed to stay in the country for a month but after two weeks, she decided to return to Jamaica. As she explains it, "Me no like the levity, so I want to go home." Before returning home to Jamaica she shopped heavily, spending £1,000 buying stuff for her parents, children and others "who used to help me during my bad times".

On returning to Jamaica with her £2,000, she was able to fix up her parents' house and buy several items of furniture"... and the money done".

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