Former Greens candidate arrested in Japan a victim of Nigerian love scam, family says

​The family of a prominent Indigenous community leader detained in Japan claims she was groomed by a Nigerian love scammer for two years before she was arrested for suspected drug trafficking.

​Japanese authorities intercepted Ballardong Njaki-Njaki woman Donna Nelson at Narita airport near Tokyo this month when she was allegedly found with drugs stashed inside a bag.

Donna Nelson (front, centre) with four of her daughters (from left) Kristal, Janelle, Taylor and Shontaye.

​The family believes Nelson, a 2022 West Australian Greens candidate and Aboriginal health advocate, was either forced or tricked into carrying the bag, which she had not packed in her luggage before leaving Australia.

The 56-year-old has been detained without charge in Tokyo since January 4, when she abruptly stopped answering messages from family and friends shortly after landing in the Japanese capital.

Nelson’s last message to her daughters was to stop being “clowns” after they flooded the family chat with jokes about the near-freezing temperatures she was going to experience in Japan.

A tracking app later revealed she had not moved from the airport for several hours after landing, sparking fears among her loved ones that something was amiss.

West Australian woman and Aboriginal community leader Donna Nelson.

Her daughters contacted the police and consular officials, who confirmed three days later Nelson had been detained by Japanese authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking. The family has been able to contact her only through her court-appointed lawyer.

Nelson had travelled to Japan to meet a Nigerian man known as “Kelly” whom she met two years earlier through an online dating site called AfroIntroductions. He claimed to be the owner of a couture brand.

Her daughters told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the pair had messaged back and forth for months, talking about a potential trip to Brazil to meet Nelson’s daughters and making plans to get married in Nigeria donning traditional African dress.

“Kelly” made efforts to gain Nelson’s trust, sending her an image of a document he claimed was his Japanese residency card and offering to pay for some of her daughters to travel overseas.

‘One of the hardest things for me when I found out that she was detained was imagining how she must have felt when she realised that this person didn’t love her.’

Kristal Hilaire

He eventually convinced Nelson to visit him in Japan and bought business-class tickets to fly her to Tokyo via Singapore, Laos and Vietnam. The family believes it was during her three-day stop in Laos that Nelson met with an associate of “Kelly” and came to be in possession of the bag that Japanese authorities later uncovered at the airport.

“One of the hardest things for me when I found out that she was detained was imagining how she must have felt when she realised that this person didn’t love her,” Nelson’s daughter Kristal Hilaire said. “How she must have felt when her heart broke.”

Under Japanese law, people suspected of committing a crime can be detained for up to 23 days without charge while police investigate the allegations.

Suspects are usually held in a police station or immigration detention centre, where they can be interrogated at length without the presence of a lawyer. Japan has no pre-indictment bail system, which means people can’t apply to be released from custody while awaiting charges.

Nelson (second from right) with members of her family.

Nelson’s daughters said her lawyer had been able to send her pictures of her grandchildren and pass on messages of support. They said she was in good spirits, had access to medication and good food, and was able to exercise.

Her daughter Ashlee Charles said Nelson was a doting mother and grandmother, who regularly took in other children going through a tough time. She said her mother “wanted to be loved” and had been encouraged to give online dating a go after two of her daughters met their husbands online.

The family wants Nelson’s experience to serve as a warning to other women searching for a partner online.

“We call her Mother Teresa because she thinks she can save everyone,” Charles said. “She is a person who tries to see the good in people.”

Nelson grew up in Merredin, a small town in WA’s Wheatbelt region about 250 kilometres east of Perth. She rose to prominence in the Indigenous community as the chair of Derbarl Yerrigan, a Perth-based health service for Aboriginal families. She was relieved of the role on Tuesday in light of her detention in Japan.

Nelson was also managing director of WA-based Pioneers Aboriginal Corporation, which in May 2019 received $1.65 million to expand a basketball program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children over three years, but did not secure follow-up funding.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it was providing consular assistance to the family, but would not provide further information for privacy reasons.

Nelson’s daughters said department officials had visited her in detention to ensure she was in good health and offered after-hours support to the family.

Nelson with her grandchildren.

It is not the first time an Australian has been detained overseas after falling victim to a suspected love scam.

Queensland primary school teacher Yoshe Ann Taylor was detained in Cambodia under similar circumstances in 2013 after she was caught trying to leave the country with two kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage.

Taylor had previously started an online romance with a Nigerian man, who had lured her to Cambodia with the promise of love and a career in the arts.

She was freed in 2019 after a Cambodian court ruled she had fallen victim to a highly organised scam run by an international drug smuggling syndicate, which tricked her into carrying the luggage.

The case provides some hope to Nelson’s family, who are determined to bring her home.

With Hamish Hastie and Millie Muroi

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