Spotlight investigation into ‘Love Mules' leads team to Japan to speak to Donna Nelson
Watch, wallet, coins, phone. I empty my pockets in front of a wary prison guard and put them into a small locker.
I look around. The inside of this mega prison in Chiba Japan looks like the outside. Grey, bleak, cold and uninviting.
I'm standing with Kristal Hilaire and she's nervous. She hasn't seen her mother Donna Nelson in months, and she's not sure what she will find on the other side of the glass.
Donna Nelson is 58 years old. She's smart, articulate, and has a busy professional life. One year she even ran as a federal candidate for the greens party.
She has five strong daughters and a solid family structure, weekend barbeques, birthdays and lots of grandkids.
So how did she get arrested arriving in Tokyo with two kilograms of methamphetamine or ICE in her suitcase?
That's why I'm here in Chiba Prison to find out.
We are ushered into a small cold concrete room, white walls and fluro lights. It's divided by a glass wall – and on the other side is Donna Nelson.
If I didn't know I was going to see her, I might have told them they brought the wrong person. Compared to photo's I've seen she's lost at least 30 kilograms.
She's gaunt in the face, her clothes are hanging off her. But the worst thing is her voice.
Thin and raspy, I have trouble hearing what she is saying through the glass. She explains it's the first time she has used her voice in months.
Since she's been in this prison she's been instructed not to speak, even to the guards and is not allowed to mix with the other prisoners.
Even her visit to the shower block every third day is by herself. Donna Nelson has been in solitary confinement for two years. Surely somewhere there's an international law against that.
The details of how she ended up here are extraordinary. An online relationship with a man known as Kelly for two and a half years. They spoke every day on video calls and Kelly even spoke to her daughters.
A relationship just like any other, two people seemingly in love trying to work out a way to be together. I have seen the messages. Thousands and thousands of them.
A wedding was planned, wedding rings organised.
There was just one small favour: Could she pick up a suitcase for him in Laos on the way to meet him for a holiday in Japan.
It was for his new fashion store opening soon. The one he's been speaking about for two years.
Donna Nelson, dizzy with excitement, flying business class to finally meet her fiancée in Japan didn't even think twice about the suitcase. She just picked it up and added her clothes to it.
What she didn't know was there was two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine or ICE packed into the lining.
Arrested in Tokyo airport and thrown into prison to await her court hearing, it took her over a week to work out it was her fiancée who set her up.
The similarities between the case of Donna Nelson and that of Veronica Watson are incredible.
Veronica Watson, a 59-year-old grandmother of nine, was also looking for love online and she found it in the form of a handsome American soldier.
They planned to marry and move to the United States together and after speaking constantly online for more than two years, he asks for one small favour: Can she fly to Brazil and pick up some investment documents for him.
It was an investment that would fund their future life together and her first time out of the country. The exotic destination of Brazil. A chance to finally meet her online boyfriend… the lure was too much.
Veronica's bag was loaded with 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, tucked into a hidden compartment. Veronica was thrown into jail, it was overcrowded and dangerous. She bursts into tears whenever you ask her about it.
So, what can police do about it? The answer is not much. How do they find the scammer? How can they connect him to the bag and the drugs? Which country is he even in?
The truth is – they don't even try. No wonder it's a growing scam, in many respects it is the perfect crime.
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