A female drug mule who was caught twice in three months trying to bring illegal drugs into Barbados will spend the next three years incarcerated at HMP Dodds.
The sentence was handed down to 29-year-old Laurel Charles of 1st Avenue, Rockley, Christ Church, by Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell, when she appeared in the District ‘F’ Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Charles, who was represented by Romain Marshall, had earlier pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis, as well as trafficking, importing and intending to supply the drug on December 9, 2018.
She was sentenced to three years for trafficking and convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other offences.
In giving the facts, prosecutor Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls said Charles left Barbados on December 5 and returned four days later on December 9 on a LIAT flight from St Marteen. She arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport around 6:44 p.m. and cleared Immigration, but was checked by Customs officers.
The search turned up 17 black packages containing vegetable matter in a false bottom of her suitcase. The drugs weighed 7.6 kilograms and had an estimated street value of $33,000.
The prosecutor revealed that Charles had been given a 12-month suspended sentence for two years for similar offences on September 20, 2018.
That sentence will run concurrent to the three-year sentence.
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