Right, but they had intercepted and notified her by mail of seizing kilograms of controlled substances on several previous occasions. She had even written back to acknowledge at least one of the notices and formally abandon her ownership interest in the package.
Why would the DoJ share that someone had a medical problem? People could become sympathetic. Better to focus the public interest on the greed and abuse of office aspects.
I read a lot of legal filings in criminal cases, and while you make a valid point my experience is the feds usually include whatever excuse/explanation people offer when they're caught. Culturally federally investigators more about 'here are the facts and how we collected them to establish probable cause' and leave the moralizing to prosecutors.
Please don't read this as a blanket endorsement or suggestion that federal investigators are always ethical, I don't believe that to be so.
