The Cocaine Buttons: Romance scam victim in a Hong Kong prison for drug smuggling

ctv's W5 one thing my dad never did was prepare her to be alone, a lonely widow looking for new love. She really loved the attention and affection she received from these guys. I told her they were all

scam

mers, but search for her. through

romance

comes a fight for freedom we have seen too many

victim

s she is facing a serious

prison

sentence this is just a very, very bad dream will I ever see my mom again welcome to a special edition of W5 from Hong Kong like this The city is a beacon for travelers - they come here for the lively open-air markets, stunning harbor views and high-end shopping - but this is the story of a Canadian tourist who saw none of it.

She is a small-town Ontario grandmother whose desperate search for love and adventure has ended in a Hong Kong jail, where she faces more than two decades behind bars as a foreigner. Thayer hates flying, but here she is, 10,000 meters above the Pacific Ocean, traveling halfway around the world to Hong Kong. Kong, it's a trip she never imagined having to take. I have never traveled outside of North America and had never been to Asia before. Oh no, I bought one there for half a glass 40. It's just an amazing culture and thanks to the people. friendly to be able to experience something I never thought I would experience I wish my mom was walking with me Angela is a reluctant tourist she is 12,000 kilometers from her home in Berry Ontario she is here because her mother Susanna lives here against her will I I don't know when next Maybe I'll be able to see her again because she's in

prison

for

smuggling

drug

s to Hong Kong.

Angela's mother is 64 years old, Susanna Thayer, mother of three, grandmother of six, has never received a speeding ticket, she lived. a protected Safe Life and never got involved in anything that is illegal a protected Safe Life one who was totally dependent on her husband whom she met when she was only 13 years old and married five years later your mother never had another boyfriend besides your father no, that was the only man my mother has ever been with, he really protected her from the world, not in a bad way but you know he was a police officer so he really saw all the things that their marriage lasted a lifetime , at least for Jim when he died in 2016.

Susanna lost her provider, her protector, one thing my dad never did was prepare her for being alone and how to take care of herself and protect herself, okay, and so five years passed and the pain subsided. faded away. Susanna was ready to find love again and so she left. Online initially did you think this is cool? My mom will have a second chance at love. That's what she was thinking because I know there are some guys you can find online that are going to be decent. She'd be like that, everyone like Giddy. and schoolgirl and she really loved the attention and affection that she was getting, you know, from these guys.

Susanna's family gave us permission to review her emails and text messages. Hi babe, I hope everything is okay with you. Hi Susie, how are you, honey? why the silence we need to be together stood out a man who called himself Walter Williams said he was a military doctor actually a neurosurgeon worked for the United Nations on a mission in Syria just like Susanna said he was 63 years old and a widower I love bombed her and their online relationship moved quickly. Did she share this information with you about the relationship she was having with this guy? Yeah, and she said maybe he'll become your dad, your new dad, and that made me uncomfortable. but I wanted her to be happy Susanna nicknamed him the good doctor they spent hours texting each other and it wasn't long before they started saying I love you When Susannah came to you and said I'm falling in love with someone I met online what was your gut reaction my gut reaction was to tune out Sue Ryan is Susanna's best friend I told him to be very careful because you can be anyone online like what doctor or neurosurgeon would tell him who has time to be on Facebook all day if he He's working, there was no point in him being at home, but the good doctor always seemed to have time to text.

Sue showed us photos from an outing she had with Susanna in the summer of 2022 in almost every photo on the page. texting on the phone, I actually felt like she ignored that visit because he was taking care of all of us, she was on the phone 24/7. With all the wealth I acquired, you were the one who brought happiness to my life, you gave me hope to never give up. and be grateful all the time I appreciate you baby you mean a lot to me you are sweet I adore you I told him whatever you do whatever you do don't send them money no matter what the reason is you want to talk to them you want to do this sex thing I guess it's called with them you have fun but don't send her money what did she say oh I won't do it but she did when Susanna asked her children for a loan of fifteen hundred dollars they began to investigate her finances and were surprised by what they discovered several loans credit cards many transactions canceled transactions and loans totaling over two hundred five thousand dollars each penny sent to the good doctor that wasn't all they found on you I found a marriage certificate that said your mother married this guy.

Yes, Susanna believed she was married to Walter. A man she had never met face to face. W5 did a reverse search on Walter Williams' photos and came back. Scam alerts. Her children called the Ontario Provincial Police, who said the marriage certificate was fake and that her money was probably gone forever, gives me an idea what it was like for her to realize that not only had she lost all this money but she was also in love, I think. She felt devastated, hurt and upset, she was taken advantage of, she was really worried about how people were going to think of her, you know, shaming her, judging her.

Susanna had been conned in a classic

romance

scam

, broke and heartbroken, she moved into her daughter Angela's spare house. bedroom sleeping next to a photo of her late husband, what was that like for her to return to live there. I think she was happy because she felt comfortable, you know, being with us, but at the same time she has to be humiliating and devastating. Susanna began to investigate. romance scams and she realized that her tough lessons could help others. Your mom makes the decision that she doesn't want any other women to be scammed the same way she was scammed, so she's going to write a book about her experience that she was working on. book and heaven James caywood helped her write it who is James K Wood well he is another man that Susanna was talking to online who used this photo that appeared right after the good doctor scammed her out of her savings Vida, another special ops soldier who lived in California more or less, said he would send James what he was writing and he would give him his opinion on it.

Look, oh, he's really kind and kind and generous and he wants to protect me and he wants to give me the world and he wants to you know, shower me with gifts and she was so happy with how he made her feel and it was nice to see that you just watched him get robbed. your mother hundreds of thousands of dollars and now a new person is coming into it. In your life you were worried that this new person might not be getting better not right away because I'm thinking what harm it could do. You knew the doctor was a scam.

Yes. Did you know that James? Yes, you did, yes, and you did. tell him I told him they were all scammers and what do you think about the James doctrine? I think he's the same guy her best friend Sue believes that the same scammer who built Susanna up with all her money had reappeared under the name James, but this The second character wasn't asking for anything, in fact all he did was offer to give , we talked about philosophy books like poems, he said he wanted to build a place for homeless children, he would call me to send it to me and he pushed me to work on my book this is Susanna's book called I Have Been Scammed Book for Dummies the last chapter includes a text conversation with virtual co-editor James a man she is convinced she loves I love you so much darling I love you so much with hearts love has really been good to me not a second or a minute of pain if I had had it since you came to my life and she believes him she believes him because he is not asking for money right so he does this for a year and then he says you know what I am going to do for you I am going to send you on a safe trip in the summer of 2022 Susanna told Her daughter Angela, who was going on a trip to a place that didn't sound familiar, told me she was going to Utopia and I was like Utopia, the word Utopia means a perfect imaginary place, but Susanna wasn't going there on August 11, the day before the flight, a ticket arrived and I was like, that's Ethiopia, the tickets were for Ethiopia, yeah, and when you saw I felt a little bit panicked and one of my first instinctive reactions was don't go, who paid for his flights, did James Early the next morning, Angela's mom woke her up, she came in, gave me a kiss and said she loved me, I'm sorry.

The last time I saw her coming she met with two people. A sudden trip leads to suspicious events. I was very scared, very worried when W5 continues. August 2022. Small town widow Susanna Thayer embarked on the adventure of a lifetime after being built with hundreds. of thousands of dollars for someone who used this photo in a classic romance scam, a man who used this photo entered Susanna's life online by showering her with love and a trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, her daughter Angela says all expenses They were paid, food, everything because there are no transactions. It turned out that she had paid anything for this trip while she was in Ethiopia.

She didn't spend a single cent. No, actually, the only thing she spent was that she had to buy a new pair of sandals because the ones she had broken. That's the only money she really had. spent tells where Susanna stayed for three weeks before her life took a terrible turn. Her best friend, Sue Ryan, spoke to Susanna every day on the phone. She went to Ethiopia under the premise that she was going to meet this man. If ever? tell you if she met him she told me that she met him she told me that she actually sent me pictures she tried to tell me that she went to safari I called her I told her you didn't go to any safari those are magazine clippings professional photos of Santa clearly he didn't take it for her and what?

Why do you think I was lying to you because I knew what my fear was? Do you think she realized when she was there? Oh, everything Sue told me is true. No, I don't think she believed it yet. Do you think your mom met James in Ethiopia? No, I don't think she knew him at all, trying to piece together what happened during those three weeks. W5 worked with Ethiopian investigative journalist Samuel Getachu. What have you been able to discover about where? Susanna was she when she landed in Addis and how long she stayed there. She stayed in Addis Ababa for about three weeks.

She stayed in an apartment like the Samuel Hotel. She will travel to the hotel in an exclusive area of ​​the capital in search of answers. she met someone when she was there she met two people Samuel spoke to hotel staff, who confirmed that two men repeatedly visited Susanna here during that three-week period. In fact, I'm making a video. This is the closest we can come to identifying. the video of the two men with the cell phone filmed by Susanna, you should try it, yes, sorry, you can see one man in the mirror, the other one is invisible at all, what were you able to figure out about who these guys could be and from where could they be?

We know they are not Ethiopians, but from their accent, it is a broken English common in West Africa, Nigeria to be precise. We know that Nigeria really has a reputation for being at the forefront of romance scams, unfortunately that is the reality and us. I've seen too many

victim

s with their mother on the other side of the world Angela started doing a little research, she sends me a picture of this guy, James Caywood, so my son knows the Internet a little better, so she ended up doing a reverse image, look towards up and said that this James caywood is a scam that this image has been used by scammers to scam women, including your mind, and I was afraid that if I tried to talk to her about it, being so far away, she would be totally disconnected, not wanting you to know not to talk to me for the second time a scammer using a fake photo tricked Susanna the first time to scam her hundreds of thousands of dollars and this time to lure her to the other side of the world and so when your son told you what was happening because of your mind I was very scared very worried but at the same time I talk to her every day everything seemed fine she is happy she is enjoying the nice warm weather and talking to the people at the hotel she seemed happy, also Susanna was planning to come home in a matter of days and then a strange event occurred with his tourist visa about to expire.

Susanna needed to leave Ethiopia. The mysterious boyfriend with a fake photo arranged that to happen, but instead of a flight home. Canada, he had a different plan. I kept asking my mom, I asked her what washappening and then he sent me to Hong Kong. The solution was to send it to Hong Kong instead of sending it back to Canada. Yes, why did she say he? She was on a mission and that's where he was going to find her next when she was at the hotel in Ethiopia. I told him directly, I said sue. I'm going to tell you that my biggest fear is that this guy is turning you into a

drug

.

Broker, if he gives you something to take with you to Hong Kong, don't take it and what did she say? Oh, he won't do that to me. He didn't believe me. She must have done it right before Susanna left for the airport. The two men she had met in the car brought her gifts strange gifts I was actually talking on the phone with her maybe The day before she left they gave her a suitcase and gave her clothes and she said, "Oh my God, I have some clothes and it's very noisy, but I'll take it home and you can choose the clothes you want. and she was very excited.

This is a photo that Susanna took of the suitcase they gave her. It was cheap and dilapidated. She put on one of her new dresses and wore it to the airport to catch her flight to Hong Kong. Her family had organized a I found my phone, which was me, yes, so you were able to track your mother through your phone and you saw her go to the airport in Addis Ababa and then she disappeared from the face of the Earth, so I started to call her phone at 10 o'clock and she didn't answer so I texted her several times where are you?

What's going on? I checked to find my location and it showed she was still at the Hong Kong airport so she was checking every half hour just to you know look where she was and then you find out my location disappeared. I'm in over my head and then I panicked. Angela's instinct to panic was an explosion. How did you know your mother was in really big trouble at the Hong Kong airport? It was not so. until the next day and what did you learn from last year's arrest? She was arrested for trafficking

cocaine

and all she said was that she had

cocaine

in a button on a button.

This is the police photo showing 262

buttons

that were on the clothes they had given him. her new suitcase and this is what was inside them the police say it's a kilogram worth of cocaine with a street value of approximately 150,000 Canadians she told me she says I just want you to remember that I will always love you, never forget That and I didn't do anything wrong. The Hong Kong drug police publicly announced the raid and posted this photo. Imagine seeing your mother like this with a hood over her head accused of a crime that could put her behind bars for decades.

Susanna was taken here to the Thai Anti-Drug Center. Women in a maximum security prison just north of the airport, what do you know about what they do to people who smuggle drugs into Hong Kong? I just heard they could lock you up and throw away the key and you might never know it. Talk to someone never again if you are a victim of a scam. You are an involuntary drug, blinded by love and tricked into committing a crime. What do you think the odds are of ever finding the people who set Susanna up when W5 continues?

Thank you. you Angela Thayer is packing her bags at her home in Barrie, Ontario, preparing to travel halfway around the world to Hong Kong, just weeks before her mother, Susanna, 64, was arrested with cocaine in the

buttons

of her clothes and faces the rest of his life. Bars when you first heard what your mom was accused of what went through your mind this is a horrible nightmare this can't be true this is just a very, very bad dream will i ever see my mom again there are two reasons why that people really get involved being a mule this is money and love Jason Eli is an expert on the subject he works for the global initiative against transnational organized crime he has traveled the world studying how drug syndicates work when you look at Susanna Thayer and his profile how does that fit well with what you know about drug mules?

In a way she is perfect, right, she is from a Western country, she is older, she is a woman and she is white, so there is a belief that someone with that type of profile would be less likely to be profiled by police, what Can you tell us about the connection between Ethiopia and Hong Kong? Much more cocaine flows in that direction than it used to. Hong Kong is a major airport in East Asia and an excellent connecting point the further cocaine travels from its destination. point of production in Latin America, the more you can charge per kilo, so Africa as a continent is a perfect transit location.

It has borders controlled weekly, ports well structured but monitored weekly. It has air connections all over the world and it has governments that I believe. could perhaps be kindly described as complacent when it comes to foreign criminal markets. She has just landed from a 16-hour flight from Canada navigating through Hong Kong's busy airport and is following the same steps her mother took just a few weeks ago for being arrested for drug

smuggling

. Her visit to prison. with her mother won't happen for two days, she gives Angela time to come to this seedy part of town known for its massage parlors, sex workers and cheap street food.

Angela is here to meet this man. He is a lifesaver for her mother. Her name. It's John Witherspoon, a 76-year-old Australian who has lived here for almost four decades. He is an advocate for women who have been tricked into becoming drug mules. He even investigates and collects evidence for those facing trial. Weatherspoon is not a detective or a lawyer, he is a Catholic Priest praise the father and the son and the spirit in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit how is it that you as a priest and prison chaplain became this almost Savior of drug mules in Hong Kong, these people are usually vulnerable, lonely, financially needy people, people who are easily fooled and unfortunately they are the target of big fish as I call them to bring drugs and we try to help them in 2013.

Father John launched a public awareness campaign called No More Mules after noticing a surge of foreigners arrested on drug smuggling charges and then 17 to Kuala Lumpur as a prison chaplain, counseling them but also traveling to their countries of origin. origin to spread the message in Africa, Asia and South America do not bring. drugs to Hong Kong how did you first hear Susanna Thayer's story? I first heard about Suzanna because her daughter Angela contacted me, she found my name on the internet somehow and as soon as I heard about her, my heart went out to her. I just wanted to try to help Father John in our in-person meeting Angela Hello welcome to Hong Kong.

Thank you. I'm glad to see you well. You could come very well. I am very happy to be here. You look like your mother. Thank you. This is a small center right here yes, Angela, come on, welcome to the doctor. Jesus Center, it's Jane, you know on the phone. I was waiting for you, welcome to Hong Kong. James, a social worker who especially deals with prisoners and has already visited your mother and we are very happy to be able to help you during your stay here in Hong Kong. In fact, I appreciate more than words can say about how you are helping my mother.

I go visit her when I can't. The moment I saw her, she was. relaxed and calmer, yes, and I bought her M M Chocolates, she loves chocolates and yes, she told me oh, I love Eminem. Then I think she brightened up a little bit, she said she felt like Job at the Bible work was a good person, but then he suddenly lost everything and she felt that way, so I said yes, but remember the work had a happy ending, she had 10 more kids, you have 10 more kids on the way, she was smiling a little at the end, she just got moved to a medium.

The conditions at the security prison called Low Wu are considered good by international standards, but Susanna still does not understand Cantonese and she is one of the few Western women Angela has been waiting for today to finally visit her mother. We are about 15 minutes away. from prison how are you feeling mixed emotions um I feel like I want to cry because it's exciting too I have no idea when I'll see her again after this oh when I leave this week at the end of this week I'll get to go home and she won't be able to have good luck, okay, thank you, thank you, the prison rules are strict, visitors are only allowed 15 minutes a day, even for family members like Angela, who has traveled 13,000 kilometers to see her mother, 15 minutes They go by terribly fast. yeah we were there talking and the next thing is nine minutes, the next thing is one minute and you know 52 seconds and the next thing the doorbell rings every time all the other women come back in and in my moments I sat there for a few seconds more um then we had to get up and leave and what was the first thing she said to you I love you I'm sorry I called her I cried I couldn't stop crying I just wanted to hug her It hurts to see her on that side and there was nothing I could do.

Father John Weatherspoon is something of a celebrity in Hong Kong. He advises sex workers. He hosts dinners for people with addictions. We are on the second floor. and their charity called Mercy Hong Kong even provides shelter, so these are women who lost their jobs due to greed, most of them yes, good morning, to anyone at home, including these foreign domestic workers who were left without a job when greed came. What's your story quickly? Because? You here, uh, I'm dominating, why did they fire you? No reason, they just dismissed it, yes, but Father John, who calls this small apartment home, has also become an advocate and investigator for those accused of being drug mules, now that he has taken over the case of a grandmother. from Barry Ontario Susanna Thayer, who believes she was tricked into bringing a kilo of cocaine to Hong Kong.

You're doing all the work you do as a priest, but you're also kind of an investigator, a detective, come on, it's not my job. I'm just supposed to be giving out Bibles in prison, but if I can do anything to help, it's just the feeling that you have to fill this void because no one is doing well. That is, no one else is doing it. a job that governments should do but it is very complicated and a little dangerous. In just a few weeks he will travel to eight countries for two months to personally try to prevent the drug mules from coming.

I'm looking at all these little stickers on your map and it's painting a pretty big picture that's ahead of you yeah, um, since 2015 I've used my annual leave to go to other countries to visit families of people in prison to help stop meals with drugs who come to Hong Kong to meet with the authorities there and have been very blessed. One of the fathers of the country that Ethiopia will visit is Ethiopia. His plan is to try to investigate who gave Susanna that suitcase full of drug-filled buttons. What do you think the chances are of ever finding the people who set Susanna up?

Good question. There may not be much chance, but there are plenty of clues, if those clues can prove that Susanna Thayer didn't know she was dealing drugs. Hong Kong lawyer Michael Arthur says that could be enough to have her case dismissed. What kind of arguments does she have to present? to the courts here to say this woman should be shown some leniency because she didn't know if the prosecution has to prove she had knowledge, if you don't know you have the drugs then you can't knowingly be in possession if she's a victim of a scam then doesn't know she's an unwitting drug mule originally from New Zealand Arthur has worked in Hong Kong for more than 30 years as a prosecutor and defense lawyer and has personally defended more than a dozen cases similar to Susanna's, he says that in each In one of his cases the accused was acquitted but there were obstacles.

The most difficult thing is to persuade the court to allow evidence that these scams continue and not simply that she was a victim of a scam. saying that the courts here are not open to accepting evidence that shows these scammers are legitimate criminal syndicates, they are very resistant to that, which is why Michael Arthur says it is so important to present evidence that shows that Susanna was an unwitting victim of any correspondence. She had with the scammers the gifts that she received from the scammers and if she cannot prove her innocence, what does she expect in time?

Well, she faces a serious prison sentence. I have a case of almost three kilograms of ketamine and that is going to attract. the sentence is around 23 years, so for some of these people with such big sentences, if you are a 70 year old person and you get a sentence like that then it is a death sentence, won't it reach you if you are lost ? and it is simply devastating to face a bleak life behind bars Angela Thayer has flown from Canada to Hong Kong to see her mother in prison today will be her second 15 minute visit on the way to Low Wu prison Angela receives a phone call, so basically I can I don't see my mom the rest of the week seven days and I'm leaving so I can't see her well thank you byewhat happened covid what someone has coveted in prison my mom was a close contact so now she's in quarantine so that means I can't see her the rest of this week.

I mean, you've traveled this far for 15 minutes. I think I feel lost and I feel like everything is a big barrier to seeing my mom. It's just devastating because she hurts me so much. I just want to go home to my family here I just want to hug them because I can't hug my mom Angela makes the long plane ride back to Canada, she flew 13,000 kilometers for 15 minutes with her mom and now it's the only way she can support herself in contact it is through letters that Susanna writes daily the pain here is so real I don't know how one can hurt as much as I am now being innocent in prison why would someone do this to me?

She describes herself and shared it with 15 other people. A woman tells her family how much she misses them and she begs them to forgive her. I hope you can forgive me for being so stupid. Susanna receives one 10-minute phone call a month. Angela recorded this call that she and her brother received just before Christmas. I love it. you, I love you too, I miss you so much, it's incredible, you don't know how much I miss you, I just want you to know that I love you so much, mom, I love each one of my family and I want to wish you a merry Christmas, merry Christmas, okay and happy new year, I want you to know that I am asleep, this is a rude awakening, I love you mom, I want you to know that I love you all, with a full heart, okay, so we will go to the hotel where Susanna was staying.

Catholic priest John Witherspoon arrived in Ethiopia and teamed up with investigative journalist Samuel Getachu. How long do they keep the security cameras? They told me they keep it for about a year. The duo are looking for evidence that Suzanne is smuggling drugs into Hong Kong. The key evidence they need is surveillance video at the hotel where Susanna stayed. can you remember it? Yes, what can you remember about her? she will go to the client. Father John finds a camera-shy waiter in the hotel lobby who remembers seeing Susanna during the three weeks she was there. She is the writer.

She writes. Yes Yes. Then Father John locates a manager. If we could get the CCTV, that surveillance. The video could identify who handed over the suitcase full of drugs and the clothes. If you agree, maybe we won't need permission from the police. If he agrees to help us, the manager refused to hand over the video. Father John even went to the premises. police station to try to get help, but to no avail, so he left Ethiopia empty-handed. W5 resumed its fight over the surveillance video after four months of emails to police, consular officials in Canada and Ethiopia, even a local lawyer, a police advance finally agreed.

To help get the video, they even went to the hotel with a letter from the police commissioner, but it was too late. The hotel manager claims that vital evidence was removed three weeks earlier. Hi mom, hi, hi, back in Canada, Angela is on the phone with her mom and she knows it could be years before Susanna's case goes to trial. I love you mommy. I just want you to know that I love you and miss you very much. We only have 10 minutes to talk each month. Connection problems can be frustrating. Mother. Hello. Mom, I can't hear you in the prison phone room, there's a clock that tells Susanna when time is up.

I really don't want you to know what it's really like. I have an idea of ​​what Alexis is like and to be able to see my family again, that is very difficult and I love everyone, I even love those who love me. I have 27 seconds left, but stay healthy, stay strong, okay, same with you mom, I love you, stay on the line and say you love me. Until you have to go, I love you, I just lost her. W5 has done a number of investigations into romance scans to check them out, visit our website w5.ctvnews.ca.