News

Ailing woman fined for drug trafficking

By PAUL A. REID, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU

DESPITE HER HUSBAND being imprisoned in England on drug charges, a London woman decided to take the chance herself and tried to smuggle 3.63kg (8lb) of ganja out of the island last month.

Forty-three-year-old cosmeto-logist Suzan Murat's luck was the same as her husband's, and she will spend at least the next three months in prison if fines of $62,800 are not paid. The mother of two, who the court heard was suffering from an ailment that had killed her own mother, a blood clot, and would need urgent medical attention, was held on June 28 when several tins of juice and bags of coffee containing the weed was found in her luggage.

Murat was booked to leave the island on June 28 on a Britannica flight when sniffer dogs alerted narcotics police to her bags. She was summoned, and after identifying the bags as hers, they were opened in her presence and the drugs found.

Drug hidden in tins

The police said they found four packages of High Mountain Coffee, three tins of mango nectar, and eight bars of Irish Spring soap all with ganja hidden inside.

Murat's attorney, Adrian Dayes, told the court she had been diagnosed with the blood clot last year and as part of her therapy was walking at least five miles day and sticking to a proper diet, neither of which she would be allowed in jail.

The attorney said the woman was hard-up for cash and approached a friend of her husband's for a loan but was instead told she could earn the money, by taking the trip. He said she was given plane tickets and money and at the end of three weeks, some men came to her and packed the drugs into her suitcase.

Senior Resident Magistrate Winsome Henry said the woman should, however, have known better, especially with her husband in jail for a similar crime.

Murat was sentenced to three months and fined $12,800 or three months for possession of ganja. She was also sentenced to three months for dealing in ganja and sentenced to three months or fined $50,000 for taking steps to export ganja.

The sentences are to run concurrently so she will only serve three months. She will, however, serve an additional three months if the fines are not paid.