RM6,000 a month job or a lifetime in a Chinese prison. Choose your African poison.

M. Athilakshimi suspected something amiss when her son was offered a RM6,000 a month job with overseas working trips thrown in. True enough, her son Vijendran Iyamuthu, 30, never came back after he was sent on a supposed business trip to Shanghai, China, in September last year.

Athilakshimi said Vijendran was offered the lucrative job by an African national who was introduced to him by an acquaintance. This was after he lost his technician job in a department store.

Athilakshimi lodged a police report four days after his departure as she had not heard from him and was suspicious of his employer, who is in Malaysia. She was also shocked when informed by the Foreign Ministry that her son was being detained in Hangzhou for drug smuggling.

The drugs were believed to be 3kg of methamphetamine.