NAME: Christina

LOCATION: Lillesand, Norway

STATUS: On trial in Norway for drug trafficking & Fugitive in Bolivia

HER CASE: Christina is arrested at the airport in Bolivia with Stina and Madelaine. She was carrying 8kg of cocaine concealed in the bottom of Adidas sports bags in her luggage. After a year in prison, the three girls were given conditional freedom, however, only Christina’s family paid the $30,000 bail. She was released on the condition she would not leave Bolivia until the trial. Instead, Christina breaks the court order, and takes a bus to Chile with her father. “She escaped Bolivia with an emergency passport given to her by the Norwegian government under a different name. They knew this was illegal,” says the Bolivian prosecutor. Once in Oslo, the Norwegian prosecutor charges Christina with attempting to traffic drugs. She goes to trial alongside four other teenagers (Roland, Christopher, Oskar and Nicole) implicated in organising the failed smuggling attempt.

HER TESTIMONY: Christina claims her ex-lover, Stina, asked her to go to Spain to paint houses, and as they were boarding the plane, Stina told her “we are going on a holiday to Bolivia to enjoy the sun.” Christina blames Stina for tricking her into going to Bolivia and says Madelaine placed the cocaine in her suitcase, when she was watching TV. However, when the girls were first caught, Christina’s family told the press, Our daughter told us she bought the sport bags at a market in Cochabamba”.

MEDIA PORTRAYAL: Months after being caught, Christina radically changes her image, she goes from wearing pants and having short hair, to wearing dresses, having long hair and using a scarf to cover her neck tattoo. Christina comes from a Norwegian upper-middle class religious family. Norway’s National Boadcaster (NRK), uses the photo of fellow suspect Nicole, to represent Christina as the “church going girl from Lillesand.”.

 

Nicole