Woman denies knowing heroin was hidden in her suitcases, trial hears
Serena Narinesingh says boyfriend had put locks on her luggage at Rwanda hotel
Serena Narinesingh’s opinion of her boyfriend appeared to change significantly while she was questioned over how seven kilograms of heroin were discovered inside her suitcases at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
The 28-year-old Vancouver woman who described herself as a “nanny from B.C.” when, in July 2015, Canada Border Services Agency officers found 7.7 kilograms of the highly addictive drug in the false bottoms of her two suitcases, will see her trial before a jury enter its second week at the Montreal courthouse on Monday.
The first week of the trial ended Friday with the jury viewing a recording of Narinesingh’s interrogation on July 18, 2015, by RCMP Corp. Kyle Mink.
During the course of the final hour of the video, Narinesingh appears to dramatically change her opinion of the man she said she had flown to Kigali, Rwanda, to see.
She told Mink she fell in love with the man she referred to as Abdallah over the course of an online relationship that began a year before her arrest.
Early in the interrogation, Narinesingh told Mink she “would do anything” for her long-distance boyfriend and considered him a “10 out of 10.”
She told Mink before her arrest she made $30,000 a year cleaning houses, cooking and working as a nanny.
She was also $20,000 in debt and had to borrow money from several friends to travel to see her boyfriend.
“I owe people money. It hasn’t been easy,” she told Mink.
At one point in the interrogation, Mink told Narinesingh what he thought of her situation. He told her he figured she was a “kindhearted” and hard- working person who was struggling and “wanted to make a quick buck.”
“I’m 100 per cent sure I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be in this situation,” Narinesingh said as she remained firm in her denial of having any knowledge of the heroin.
Her face lit up when Mink informed her experts were preparing to examine the packaging the heroin was wrapped in and if her fingerprints were on it he would know she had been lying to him.
“Are we going to find your fingerprints in the packages?” Mink asked. “No. I swear it. On my life. On my father’s life,” Narinesingh said.
The jury was told earlier in the week the accused’s fingerprints weren’t even found on the two suitcases.
In the video, Mink does not appear to be fully convinced Narinesingh is telling him the truth.
He appeared to suspect while Narinesingh did not plan the smuggling operation she was at least aware of what she was trying to smuggle into Canada.
“If you did it for love, I take my hat off to you for that,” he said.
The comment appeared to spark something in Narinesingh.
She suddenly appeared willing to reveal more about her last day in Kigali.
She said when she went down to the hotel’s front desk to pay her bill Abdallah was alone in her room with her suitcases. When she returned, she said, Abdallah informed her he had placed locks on her suitcases and handed her the keys to them.
When she questioned the gesture, she said, Abdallah told her he was concerned someone at the airport in Kigali would steal items from her bags.
Communication between the couple was a challenge, Narinesingh said, because Abdallah had difficulty speaking English. When they would communicate online he needed to use Google Translate, a free online service.
“When he talks to me he rarely says anything to me. When he put on the locks that made me feel weird,” she said.
When asked to describe her last conversation with her boyfriend, Narinesingh said she asked him what he had dreamed about the night before.
“He said that he had dreamed that we were married — that he could see himself introducing me to his family,” Narinesingh said while adding he suddenly revealed to her that she would have to convert to Islam if they were ever to marry.
Mink then told Narinesingh he used to help investigate potentially false immigration claims and in particular feigned marriages, where a person from outside Canada marries a Canadian citizen with the sole intention of becoming a permanent resident in this country.
He told Narinesingh he suspected she had been manipulated by drug smugglers who used her as a mule.
“I trusted him. I gave myself to him. But from all the things you are telling me I’m (starting to have doubts),” Narinesingh said as the interrogation neared its end.
She also said Abdallah told her he had a friend in Vancouver who would contact her when she got back. Despite having had an online relationship with Abdallah for a year it was the first time he mentioned he had a friend in the city she lived in.
She said Abdallah also told her to expect a visit from his friend.
“(Abdallah) said: ‘He’s a really nice guy. I want you to meet him,’ ” she told Mink.
Narinesingh is charged with importing heroin into Canada and with possession of heroin with intent to traffic.