Smuggler jailed

A drug mule who swallowed 25 packages of marijuana to smuggle into Barbados in order to clear a debt back home has been handed a 12-month jail sentence.

The Jamaican woman, Stacy-Ann Cleopatra Beckford, who ingested the illegal substance which was wrapped in plastic and has a $4,000 estimated street value was stopped when she arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport on February 4.

She was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she passed out the illegal drugs, prosecutor Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls told Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell today.

The 33-year-old from Clarendon, who was discharged from the hospital on Monday February 11, was subsequently charged with possession, possession with intent to supply, possession with intent to traffic and importation of cannabis.

After the facts were outlined, Beckford explained that she committed the crime in order to repay a debt, which she has pending back in Jamaica. She further explained that she was informed that she could get more money here for the substance than back at home.

The sentence was imposed on the trafficking charge and Beckford was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other offences.