Six years jail for mum and baby

Cristina Guerrero-Nieto tried to smuggle up to $500k of cocaine into NZ. Photo / Doug Sherring

A Spanish drug trafficker this week began a six-year jail sentence with her baby daughter.

Cristina Guerrero-Nieto delivered the girl in June while in custody after trying to smuggle up to $500,000 of cocaine into New Zealand.

On Monday the 26-year-old chef and co-accused, fellow Spaniards Ivan Casal-Carmona, 33, and David Beltran-Velez, 26, were sentenced by Judge Jonathan Moses in the Manukau District Court to six years jail each.

Last month they admitted importing between 1.5kg and 1.8kg of cocaine.

The drug had been dissolved and soaked into clothes and towels in their luggage.

This week, a source told the Herald on Sunday Guerrero-Nieto was caring for the baby girl in the mother and child unit at Auckland Women's Prison.

Guerrero-Nieto does not speak English.

"She does get visits from a nun who speaks Spanish," said the source.

The source did not know who the baby's father was, and neither Guerrero-Nieto's lawyer, David Niven, nor authorities would name him.

The Herald on Sunday has seen Guerrero-Nieto holding hands with co-accused Beltran-Velez in the dock.

The pair and Casal-Carmona, were caught last November after a drug dog detected cocaine in their luggage when they arrived in Auckland on a flight from Chile.

They were waiting to board a flight to New Caledonia when they were arrested.