![Pamela Taina Nascimento was caught attempting to smuggle cocaine into New Zealand in September.](https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/media/22923871/cocaine-drugs-mdma-snorting-photo-stock.jpg?rmode=crop&rnd=132651511324770000&height=379&quality=95&scale=both)
A mystery meeting on a Brazilian beach has led to a young mum of two being locked up in a Kiwi prison for half a decade, as Mexican and South American cartels try and flood this country with top-shelf cocaine.
Pamela Taina Nascimento was caught attempting to smuggle cocaine into New Zealand in September.
The 23-year-old had travelled to Auckland from Sao Paulo in Brazil, via Buenos Aires. She had swallowed about 40 pellets of cocaine while 44 smaller pellets were located on her - they added up to nearly 1kg with an 85 per cent purity.
She had met a mystery man on the Brazilian beach, who offered her R$12,000 Brazilian reals, which when converted is a little more than $4500 New Zealand dollars, a court heard yesterday.
The cocaine pellets were worth more than $310,000 on New Zealand streets.
Growing up in a town in the southeast of South America's biggest country, Nascimento was raised by her grandparents but had also lost her eldest brother in a shooting two years ago.
She had carried out a drug run before - to Spain - which paid her a similar amount. She used it to help pay for bills and raise her two young children, aged 5 and 4.
However, when she arrived in Auckland on September 28, Customs officers searched and questioned her.
![The cocaine pellets had a street value of about $310,000. Photo / NZ Customs](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/_k2R9Gkfv6JyBWZie7La_paWjAc=/620x587/smart/filters:quality(70)/media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/201849/download_maste1.jpg)
She came clean and revealed the concealed drugs on her body and in her digestive system.
Appearing for sentencing yesterday, a distraught Nascimento was imprisoned for six years and three months.
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