An American citizen was on Tuesday sentenced to prison by Magistrate Sueanna Lovell for trafficking narcotics.
Viole Pantaleon
Viole Pantaleon, 25, a mother of four of Lot 6781 Northwest, 1st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, made an appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to answer to the charge of trafficking narcotics.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge, which stated that on October 28 at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, she had in her possession 176g cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
The defendant was unrepresented in court and stated that she made a mistake.
She further said that she was only trying to provide a better life for her children.
Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Prosecutor Oswald Massiah stated that the defendant is an American by birth and after making arrangements with persons in the U.S. and Guyana, she consented to travel to Guyana.
On October 17, Pantaleon came to Guyana on the pretext of being on vacation.
Her associates picked her up from CJIA and accommodated her in Eccles, East Bank Demerara. On October 27 she was given 100 cocaine pellets to ingest and was left alone to do so. The defendant only swallowed 19 pellets and hid the others in her dirty linen, which were thrown away by the maid.
Under the impression she had ingested all the pellets, on October 28 she was taken to CJIA to return to the U.S. During the check-in process, a CANU officer observed the defendant acting strangely and as a result she was questioned and admitted to ingesting the pellets.
She was arrested and taken to a hospital where an x-ray was done.
After a few days, the pellets were excreted and Pantaleon was then charged for the offence.
The magistrate stated that because the defendant did not waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty and also accepted the prosecutor’s facts, she would, be sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined Gy$50,000.
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