Lesson No 5 - If the Police come calling and they don’t have a warrant (or other legal grounds) to gain entry to your home, you don’t have to let them in. Stand your ground! You never know what they will find or convince you to say.
Turning our attention to Suzy’s movements, the NZ Police knew all about Suzy’s planned trip to the UK to attend a wedding. And they knew that she was planning on bringing Nembutal back with her as a result of a stop-over in Hong Kong. Inspecting her luggage on her return to New Zealand was an obvious next step. There are some more important points worth noting here.
In order to catch Suzy ‘red-handed’ in importing Nembutal, the senior investigating officer in the Wellington Police flew to Auckland Airport to greet Suzy’s plane (and luggage), unbeknownst to her. Working with three Customs officers, the officer searched Suzy and her husband Mike’s luggage before it came out on the baggage carousel.
Suzy said that she had wondered at the time why their bags took so long to appear, given they were flying ‘priority’ (when bags usually come off first). Now she knows. The authorities were busy behind the scenes, doing what is known in the trade as a ‘covert’ search. On this occasion, the Police and Customs officers found no drugs in Suzy and Mike’s luggage.
Lesson No 6 - If your bags come out last on the baggage claim at the airport, you can assume they have been searched and it might be time to ask questions about what could be going on.