Latest news with #DonnaNelson
7NEWS
26-05-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
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.
Perth Now
24-05-2025
- Perth Now
Inside the crime wave targeting innocent Aussie grandmothers
A global investigation has uncovered the devastating crime wave targeting and manipulating innocent Australian grandmothers into international drug mules. The bombshell revelations are uncovered on 7NEWS Spotlight as journalists Michael Usher, Mylee Hogan and Denham Hitchcock go undercover in Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong to expose the cruel deception of online romance scammers. It comes just days after a Brazilian judge cleared Veronica Watson, 59, of drug smuggling after she was found with 1.5kg of cocaine leaving Sao Paulo Airport last December. The Queensland grandmother has always maintained her innocence and says she was scammed by a man posing as a love interest. 'I trusted him. He said he loved me,' she told Spotlight. 'I thought we were going to get married.' In December, Perth grandmother Donna Nelson was sentenced to six years behind bars after smuggling 2kg of meth in a suitcase into Japan's Narita Airport in 2023. The 59-year-old said she received the suitcase from a man she met on social media in 2020, and brought it from Laos to Tokyo as instructed. A sketch of Donna Nelson at her drug smuggling trial. Credit: 7NEWS / 7NEWS The judges acknowledged Nelson was a victim of an online romance scam, but said she should been suspicious enough to not carry his suitcase. Nelson's lawyer, Rie Nishida, said the verdict was a 'very unreasonable decision'. 'We need to talk with Donna but we will fight until the end, until she gets freedom,' she told reporters outside court last year. 'She's devastated but she's a strong woman so we will discuss and prepare for the next fight.' Nelson's family have since confirmed they will be appealing the verdict. 'These online relationships were real, in both cases they went on for two and a half years (with) messages and video calls,' Hitchcock said. 'This is a new type of scam, insidious, evil and cruel. 'We're not just telling these women's stories; we're attempting to track down the people who destroyed their lives and show how it can happen to anyone.' Love Mules airs on 7NEWS Spotlight on Sunday at 8pm on Seven and 7Plus.
ABC News
27-04-2025
- ABC News
VIDEO: Donna Nelson is serving six years in a Japanese prison, where she spends more than 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.
Donna Nelson is serving six years in a Japanese prison, where she spends more than 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.
