[9] To help provide for her family, Veloso emigrated to Dubai in 2009 to work as a household service worker, however she soon returned to the Philippines before the end of her two-year contract after an attempted rape by her employer.

[12] Sergio then introduced Veloso to a Malaysian based African man named 'Ike', who gave her an Air Asia plane ticket and a cell phone number to call once she landed in Indonesia.

[4] After dismantling Veloso's suitcase the officers discovered 2.6 kilograms (5.7 lb) of heroin hidden in the inner lining (worth an estimated US$500,000), which had been wrapped in aluminum foil and black plastic in an effort to avoid discovery.

[15] After learning of Mary Jane's arrest, and getting details of the events that lead to it while speaking to her via a phone call from an Indonesian prison, Veloso's relatives travelled to Talavera to confront Maria Kristina Sergio.

They were warned not to contact the authorities or speak to the local media, as the international drug trafficking organization Sergio claimed to be a member of would take revenge on both Mary Jane and the rest of the Veloso family too if they exposed their activities.

Throughout her trial she maintained her innocence, claiming that she was duped into carrying the suitcase by her recruiter, a godsister of hers named Maria Kristina Sergio, who convinced her to travel to Indonesia after failing to get a job in Malaysia.

[17][18][8] Veloso was represented during her trial by a state-funded attorney with little experience in capital cases, and her court-appointed interpreter was an unlicensed student who translated proceedings from Bahasa into English, a language which Mary Jane had only a limited proficiency in.

An appellate lawyer would later remark that a pivotal moment occurred when the trial judge asked Veloso, in Bahasa Indonesian, if she regretted trafficking heroin into the country from Malaysia.

Trust in God"[22] Veloso was scheduled to be executed on the maximum security prison island of Nusa Kambangan together with the Bali Nine duo from Australia, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran; Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte; an Indonesian; and four Nigerians at 1:00 AM WIB (2:00 AM PHT) on 29 April 2015.

[23] On the morning of 28 April 2015, Maria Kristina Sergio unexpectedly surrendered to Philippine police in Nueva Ecija, claiming to have received death threats through online social media and via text message, saying that if Veloso was executed as scheduled she herself would be murdered in revenge.

[24] Sergio was about to be indicted by the National Bureau of Investigation on charges of illegal recruitment, human trafficking, and estafa in relation to Veloso's case and claimed she turned herself in to prove her innocence of all the accusations against her.

[33] President Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma Jr. released a statement soon after saying: “We would like to acknowledge their sense of fairness in assessing new information we provided and their understanding that Mary Jane Veloso is a person who went to their country in search of a better life, better opportunity, but was taken advantaged of by criminal syndicates”.

[37] At a 27 May 2015 joint hearing of the Philippine House Committee on Dangerous Drugs in Manila, National Bureau of Investigation Director Virgilio Mendez announced that Veloso's two sons and their father would be immediately admitted into the Witness Protection Program, after unidentified armed men had been seen acting suspiciously near their home in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

[57] At a separate news conference, DFA official Eduardo Jose de Vega told that the ultimate goal was for the president to issue clemency after her transfer to the custody of Philippine authorities.

[58] Veloso herself released a statement expressing gratitude to all those who had worked to have her transferred to the Philippines, adding that she would use Indonesian cloth-dying techniques she learned in prison to earn money for her family on her return home.

[59] On 16 December 2024, Indonesian Ministry of Immigration and Correction official Sohibur Rachman confirmed that Veloso had been transferred to Pondok Bambu prison in the Duren Sawit district of Jakarta in preparation for her repatriation,[60][61] in the expectation that she would return to the Philippines a couple of days later via a Cebu Pacific flight departing around midnight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

[70] The document further stated that Sergio had travelled extensively to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore over the previous 6 years, and that she used the promise of gainful employment abroad as a way to entice potential recruits to work as couriers.

[72] On 20 May 2015, Sergio submitted a counter-affidavit to the Department of Justice in relation to the charges brought by the N.B.I, denying all allegations of involvement with Veloso's legal issues and instead blaming two West African men named "Ike" and "John" for tricking her into carrying the suitcase containing drugs to Indonesia.

[73] On 9 July 2015, the Department of Justice approved on the filing of charges of illegal recruitment, estafa, and human trafficking against Maria Kristina Sergio and her partner, Julius Lacanilao.

[78] Associate Justice Ramon M. Bato Jr., on behalf of the Court of Appeals, issued a proclamation on 22 May finding in favor of the defense motion that disallowed taking Veloso's deposition, because it was claiming that it violated the plaintiffs' right to face their accuser.

The motion stated, "No damage can be irreparable as what Mary Jane stands to suffer — to be muzzled before she is silenced forever, to die without ever being heard.”[80] The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) also requested the Court of Appeals to reconsider their ruling.

[86] After a denied motion filed by lawyers from the Public Attorney's Office representing Sergio and Lacanilao, the Supreme Court reaffirmed their 2019 decision in a resolution dated 14 August 2020.

[89][90] On 14 January 2020, the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court found Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao guilty in a separate illegal overseas employment recruitment case.

[93] In light of the November 2024 announcement of Veloso's proposed prisoner transfer back to the Philippines, Justice Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano commented that the ongoing case against Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao regarding human trafficking charges at the Regional Trial Court of Nueva Ecija would now proceed much quicker, as it had previously stalled due to Veloso being unable to testify while being imprisoned in Indonesia, and that she would now be able to finally testify against her alleged recruiters in open court.

[95] Notable Indonesians who supported her included chef Rahung Nasution,[96] French-Indonesian singer Anggun,[97] Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo,[98] and maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih.

Internationally, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timor President José Ramos-Horta, British tycoon Richard Branson, English musician Tony Iommi and American author Eve Ensler[102] spoke publicly in support of Veloso.