– jailed for 10 years in UK

A woman was jailed for ten years recently in the United Kingdom (UK) after she was found guilty of smuggling one kilo of cocaine from Guyana to the UK, according to the Chelmsford Weekly News.

According to the report 57-year-old Lesley Graham, a business consultant, was jailed in a Croydon Crown Court last Monday after she was found guilty of smuggling the cocaine, said to be worth 80,000 pounds. She said she thought she was a carrying a consignment of gold for someone she knew.

The report said Graham, who is originally from Sierra Leone, flew from Guyana to the UK via Paris on September 19 last and was stopped by customs officers. The cocaine weighing one kilo was discovered in her luggage and she was transferred to the Gatwick Airport.

At Gatwick the woman was questioned and she told law officials that she received a phone call from a man she had met earlier and an arrangement was made for them to see each other and discuss bringing gold into the UK.

The woman said she was later offered 1,000 pounds to take the gold to the UK and she agreed after the man assured her it was gold she would be transporting and not drugs. The man, she only knew as Michael, then purchased a ticket and she flew to French Guiana and then travelled overland to Guyana.

The report did not say how she left Guyana but while sentencing her Judge Stephen Waller told her that cocaine has brought misery to others and the unlawful importation of it had a serious effect on society.