Kimberly Hall claims she was pressured into carrying the drugs package in her suitcases by men she met in Portugal, who offered her a free holiday in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The 28-year-old beautician said she met two so-called ‘property developers’ while in Portugal.
She is said to have claimed they coerced her into taking bags of what she thought was cash back to the UK after travelling to Cancun.
Her family told national newspapers that she was ‘threatened’ on her arrival in Mexico, where she said she was given the bags.
But after she arrived in Chicago, having flown from Cancun, she was found to have 43kg of cocaine while awaiting a connecting flight to Manchester.
Homeland Security were waiting for Hall at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport when she arrived from Mexico to catch the connecting flight to Manchester.
(Image: The Mail on Sunday) As she is accused of being found with more than 900 grams of cocaine, it places her alleged crime in the top bracket for sentencing in the US.
It is a Class X felony, carrying a potential prison sentence in the range between 15 and 60 years.
Class X felony drug charges are usually reserved for people who intend to manufacture or distribute illegal drugs.
Ms Hall’s family said what she is guilty of is, “stupidity and naivety” after agreeing to the strangers’ offer of a free holiday in Mexico in return for carrying what she thought was £250,000 in cash across borders.
They said she was lured into a free holiday by two men who she met on a trip with a friend to Portugal.
She said the men told her they were property developers and invited her to stay with them, before offering her the trip of a lifetime.
After returning to the UK, she then went on to Cancun, where she was handed the bags.
She claims that the men then coerced her into taking £250,000 in cash back to the UK in her suitcases.
On the way home, however, officers stopped her at the airport in Chicago.
She now is detained in Chicago’s notorious Cook County Jail, awaiting her trial.
“They got her phone and threatened her family and that’s why she did it.
“She’s never been in trouble, nothing at all.
“She’s had a good upbringing and has always worked for her money.”
Mr Hall said his daughter told them: “You don’t understand what they were threatening me with.”
But he said that was all they could get out of her.
Ms Hall is charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver, following her arrest in August.
Her father said they’ve paid £28,000 for a local attorney in the US but said they are fearful for their daughter’s well-being as she is ‘petrified’ and ‘in tears’.
The story is said to resemble the case of the “Peru Two”, in which two UK women were arrested in 2013 on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Peruvian capital, Lima.
They had flown from Ibiza, in Spain, where they had been holidaying.
McCollum and Reid maintained that they had been pressured into carrying the drugs by an armed gang, but later pleaded guilty.
They were both sentenced to six years and eight months in prison and trained as beauticians while detained in Peru, before eventually being released and returning to the UK, in 2016.
People protesting about the conditions within the prison have claimed in the past that some inmates have no access to soap and are restricted in taking exercise.
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A coalition of former prisoners, relatives of current inmates and advocates say that the inmates’ First Amendment rights are being violated daily as they are not allowed to worship the way they choose.
But the Cook County Sheriff’s Office described the claims being made by the group as, “‘baseless.”
They said their facility is considered, “a model”, across the country for safety, adding that inmates are provided many critical services including mental health provision and the essentials of soap and balanced nutritious meals.