The family of a Grahamstown resident arrested on drug charges in Thailand this week have cast a protective net around her mother's Joza home, reports Abongile Mgaqelwa, as the topic floods social network sites here and around the world.
When Grocott's Mail visited the home of 23-year-old Babsie Nobanda, family members were still locked in discussion, three days after the story of her arrest broke in international media and pictures
The family of a Grahamstown resident arrested on drug charges in Thailand this week have cast a protective net around her mother's Joza home, reports Abongile Mgaqelwa, as the topic floods social network sites here and around the world.
When Grocott's Mail visited the home of 23-year-old Babsie Nobanda, family members were still locked in discussion, three days after the story of her arrest broke in international media and pictures
of her being searched at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, began circulating on the internet.
Nobanda had updated her Facebook status, saying she was looking forward to coming home to South Africa before she left Brazil on Sunday.
The next day she was behind bars. Airport officials had reportedly noticed a white substance in her dreadlocks, minutes after she landed in the Thai capital.
Nobanda had already made it past airport checks in Brazil and Doha, where she'd made a stop-over, before being caught in Thailand.
Media reports say the young woman was taken aside and searched by Thai police. According to reports, Thai police claim they found 1.5kg of cocaine in tubes stuffed inside her artificial dreadlocks.
The street value of the drugs was estimated to be around R1.2 million.
Minutes after her arrest, members of the media were reportedly called to the scene and officials demonstrated how what they said were tubes of cocaine had been stuffed inside her artificial dreadlocks.
Nobanda reportedly told Thai police she had been promised R16 000 for delivering the drugs.
Images taken at the airport show her assisting officials as they untied the wool around the drug filled tubes.
At first she did not appear to show much emotion, but images of police apparently demonstrating to the media how the tubes had been concealed, show her with hands on her face and looking down, visibly shaken.
As soon as the story broke in the media, photographs of Babsie being searched at the airport started circulating in the internet. On Facebook, one of Nobanda's friends took a screenshot of her last Facebook status – she'd posted it while she was still in Sao Paulo. The status read: "South America, it's been awesome! But it's true what they say: 'There's no place like home!' Can't miss SA festive. So bangane, I hope icooler box are good to go."
On Twitter, news of Nobanda's arrest has been in the top 10 most popular topics in the world.
A close friend described Nobanda as being warm and friendly, with a bubbly personality. She said she had a strong business sense and worked in her aunt's small catering business.
