A visitor from Colombia was fined $750 on Monday after pleading guilty to importing 13.7 grams of ganja into the island.
Customs officers found the vegetable matter in a condom inside a jar of hair cream.
Magistrate Nova Hall told Betsy Johana Pena Quintana that importation offences routinely attract sentences of immediate imprisonment.
In this case, however, she considered the relatively small amount – less than half an ounce – and the fact that it was a ‘soft’ drug. She said the offence could be dealt with by way of a financial penalty, but added that she would recommend deportation.
Quintana, 27, first came before the court on 3 September, when the magistrate determined that she would need the assistance of an interpreter.
With an interpreter present this week, the defendant said she would not have a lawyer and would enter her plea of guilty.
Crown Counsel Richard Hearnden presented the facts.
On Monday, 27 August, Customs officers were doing their usual duties at the airport. Around 6.50pm, Quintana arrived on a flight from San Andres. The officers decided to search her luggage thoroughly.
They found a jar of hair cream. Inside the jar was a condom that had been submerged into the cream, but part of it was visible. The condom was opened and found to contain a vegetable matter later analysed as ganja.
Quintana was arrested and cautioned, then taken to hospital. There she was X-rayed to see if any portion of any drug had been ingested or otherwise hidden on her person. The tests proved negative.
Interviewed the following day, Quintana confessed.
The magistrate asked if she had anything to say before sentence. Quintana said she was sorry for what she had done. She said the ganja was for her personal use during her vacation.
In addition to the fine, the magistrate ordered Quintana to pay $75 as the cost for the drug analysis.
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