A 45-year-old woman from Colombia who carried heroin and cocaine into Jersey has been jailed for five-and-a-half years in the first case involving drugs couriers travelling directly to the island from South America.
The Royal Court’s Jurats also recommended that Marizel Perlaza Penagos should be deported back to her native country after serving her sentence.
Crown Advocate Lauren Taylor, prosecuting, said Penagos arrived in Jersey on 27 June last year with hand luggage containing an unknown quantity of heroin.
Her suitcase, which arrived a few days later, contained a kilo of cocaine. She delivered the drugs to a man in the island and received payment.
When the police found Penagos with £16,500 in cash, she initially claimed she was working as a prostitute in order to raise the money to pay for a medical operation for her seriously ill son.
She later admitted the charges of importing drugs and possessing criminal property.
Crown Advocate Taylor said Penagos had no previous convictions. She recommended a sentence of eight years in jail.
Advocate Julia-Anne Dix, defending, said Penagos and her family lived in a poverty-stricken region of Colombia.
She said Penagos’s son needs an expensive operation and she was persuaded she could make money by carrying the drugs to the island and handing them over to a man. The drugs have not been recovered.
The intended recipient, David Samuel Da Conceicao Varela, was jointly charged with Penagos for the importation offences – but he fled the island.
A warrant for his arrest in the UK is being progressed.
Advocate Dix said Penagos had been provided with a suitcase and hand luggage containing the drugs, as well as tickets for return flights from Brazil and hotel accommodation in Jersey.
She said her client did not realise that she was carrying heroin as well as cocaine.
“She didn’t see the drugs, she never saw them concealed, she had no knowledge of the quantities,” the advocate said.
Advocate Dix added: “The perpetrators at the top of the chain have evaded justice.
“Miss Penagos is at the bottom of the chain, yet she is the one who is going to face many years in prison.”
The lawyer suggested a sentence of six years.
The Jurats imposed a lower sentence. Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said the court accepted that Penagos had been desperate for money.
He added: “You were in difficult circumstances. The account of your life in Colombia makes difficult reading.”
But he said that as she had no ties to the island the court would recommend she be deported.
Luke Goddard, senior manager of Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, said it was the first case in which the service had encountered drugs couriers travelling directly from South America to Jersey.
He said: “This is a very significant investigation for JCIS. We have severely disrupted an international drug trafficking syndicate from operating in the island, and I commend all the officers who were involved in this lengthy operation.”
He added: “JCIS will continue to target syndicates who move controlled drugs and illicit cash across our borders.”
Jurats Dulake, Austin-Vautier, Cornish, Le Cornu and Opferman were sitting.
The investigation is continuing in relation to other individuals who were involved with this importation.