Katyna Baia and her partner, Jeanne Paolini, were preparing for the trip of a lifetime across Europe when their holiday plans turned into a nightmare.
The couple, aged 40 and 44, were arrested after landing in Frankfurt, Germany, when police discovered 43 kilograms of cocaine—worth an estimated £2.5 million—inside luggage tagged with their names.
What they didn’t know was that their bags had been swapped at São Paulo International Airport in Brazil by corrupt staff working with drug traffickers.
Security footage later revealed the elaborate scheme: airport workers removed the couple’s genuine suitcases from the carousel, stripped off their tags, and attached them to drug-filled bags checked in by two women posing as passengers.
By the time Katyna and Jeanne arrived in Germany, they were accused of being traffickers. Both were arrested, strip-searched, and thrown into jail—where they spent 38 days.
They later told The Sun they felt “humiliated” throughout their ordeal, describing the countless strip searches, nights spent apart in separate cells, and being treated as “guilty until proven innocent.”
The pair had flown from Goiânia, Brazil, with connecting flights through São Paulo and Frankfurt before reaching Berlin. But in Frankfurt, Jeanne was stopped by plain-clothed officers and taken into custody.
“At first I thought it was a routine check,” she recalled. “Then I was handcuffed and heard the word ‘cocaine.’ I had no idea what was happening.”
Katyna said she immediately pointed out that the bags police presented as theirs were completely different from their actual luggage, even showing receipts and travel documents to prove it. Authorities, however, were unmoved.
Both women were eventually transferred to a women’s prison outside Frankfurt, where they spent more than a month. Katyna described sleepless nights, the constant fear of never seeing her partner again, and being denied proper medical care for her chronic condition.
Their release finally came on April 11, after German prosecutors reviewed evidence from Brazilian investigators. CCTV footage confirmed that the couple’s bags had been tampered with by airport staff in São Paulo, who were later found with thousands of pounds in cash. At least 21 people have since been arrested, and Brazil has introduced tighter airport security, including a ban on mobile phones for staff in restricted areas.
Even though they are free, the trauma lingers. “What we lived in prison is still very much alive in our minds,” Katyna said. “I haven’t been able to fully move on.” Jeanne added: “The only way I could sleep was by taking medication for the first time in my life. The memory of that cell still haunts us.”
Earlier this month, the couple traveled to Patagonia—their first trip abroad since their release. Now, they take no chances with luggage.
“We wrap our bags in plastic now,” they explained. “Because it’s not just about suitcases—it’s about our freedom. We could have lost twenty years of our lives.”
