BY TASHIEKA MAIR, Star Writer
WESTERN BUREAU
A JAPANESE NATIONAL who allegedly tried to smuggle ganja in cans of coffee from the Sangster International Airport on Saturday is maintaining a not guilty plea to the offence after she appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
Twenty-four-year-old Shinobu Fukuda is awaiting the court's decision as to whether she is granted bail.
Fukuda is awaiting the arrival of her parents in the island as well as for the Japanese High Commission to make arrangements for her accommodation in the event she is granted bail.
Her attorney, Natalie Messado-Brown told the court that her client who is an art teacher in Tokyo where she resides; was in Jamaica to purchase material for an art exhibition that she was planning to put on back home. She argues that her client is highly respected by her students and had no reason to jeopardise her reputation by taking part in any illegal activity.
However, RM Wilson Smith said that the application was premature as no arrangements were made to accommodate bail.
The allegations as outlined by the court are that on December 31 a police officer was at the AJAS luggage chute making checks for passengers on a continental flight to Newark.
Sniffer dogs alerted him to a suitcase which bore the accused woman's name. She was summoned to the chute where she identified the suitcase. It was searched in her presence and six cans, labelled as containing coffee were pried opened and found to contain single packages of compressed ganja.
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