A Melbourne mother-of-five has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after being caught smuggling 7kg of cocaine and heroin into Taiwan.
Debbie Voulgaris, 58, was arrested on December 10, 2023, at Taoyuan International Airport when customs officers discovered the drugs hidden in plastic bags inside her luggage during an X-ray inspection.
According to evidence presented to the Taoyuan District Court, Voulgaris had picked up the suitcase containing the drugs—valued at 40 million New Taiwan dollars (approximately $2 million AUD)—in Malaysia on December 8.
She then flew to Taiwan, where she was supposed to deliver the package.Voulgaris initially denied knowledge of the drugs but later claimed during pre-trial proceedings that her ex-husband, John Voulgaris, was behind the scheme.
The court summoned him to testify in Taiwan, but he failed to appear.Later, Voulgaris admitted that she had agreed to transport the drugs in exchange for $1,800 USD (about $2,834 AUD) and free flights and accommodation.
Taiwan has some of the strictest drug trafficking laws in the world, with penalties ranging from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
However, the judge reduced Voulgaris’ sentence after considering her guilty plea and her family’s financial situation.John Voulgaris, who runs a home loans business in Melbourne, told Australian media that both he and Debbie had been set up by drug traffickers posing as investors.
“We don’t know anything about bloody drugs and have never seen or touched them in our lives,” he told Daily Mail Australia last year.
Following her arrest, Voulgaris’ children launched a Change.org petition titled Help Towards the Freedom of Debbie from Injustice and started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to visit her in prison.
“My mother has been detained in a foreign prison for seven months under a strict communication ban,” her daughter wrote in July.
“She is in much need of emotional and physical support from her children.”Once her sentence is complete, Voulgaris will be deported to Australia.
