U. S. woman gets four years on cocaine charge

TIMES INT'L

American Trevi Hall, a 50-year-old resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on Thursday, charged with being in possession of cocaine. She pleaded guilty.

The mother of one was caught at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) with 4.442 kilos of the prohibited substance in her possession for the purpose of trafficking. Prosecutor Oswald Massiah, of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU), told the court that the accused arrived in Guyana on February 13, and was booked as a guest at the Palace de Leon Hotel in Georgetown under the pretext she was on vacation.

During her stay at the hotel, an unidentified male visited her, took her two suitcases away and then returned them to her at the hotel. Hall, it is alleged, was solely responsible for packing her own suitcases upon receipt of them.

The prosecutor said that on February 22, the accused headed for the CJIA, since she was booked on a return flight to the U.S. The airline and immigration authorities, as well as CANU officers, noticed strange looking objects in the suitcases, and a search was initiated. The CANU officers found two packets of cocaine in one suitcase and three packets in the other, bringing the total find to five packets.

The defendant was cautioned and arrested, and appeared in Court One on Thursday.

“What do you have to say?” the magistrate asked Hall, and she replied, “Nothing.” But later, with the help of attorney Nigel Hughes, the words spoken by the emotional Hall was relayed to the magistrate: “I did not know it was in the suitcases.” She claimed she had loaned the suitcases to a friend who was travelling to Suriname.

“Do you accept the facts presented by the prosecution?” asked the magistrate. With the exception that she had no intention of trafficking in cocaine, she agreed with the facts and told the magistrate she could not afford an attorney, and she pleaded guilty. “And I have no family here in this country,” Hall forlornly informed the court.

Hall broke down in tears as the magistrate sentenced her to four years’ imprisonment and fined her Gy$30,000.

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