Woman bust with cocaine hidden in bra

A DRUG smuggler was caught with cocaine worth an estimated £180 000 (R3.3-million) hidden in her 46D bra, a court has heard.

Nola Williams, 47, was found with the stash after arriving at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom on a British Airways flight from Kingston, Jamaica, with a child and accomplice Raymond Goodison.

However, the court was told that despite having a previous prison sentence for drugs, Goodison was let out on bail and had since fled the country.

The pair were arrested as they boarded a train to Victoria station in central London in January last year. A search revealed a kilogram of cocaine stitched into the cups of Williams’s bra.

Goodison had used the woman as a mule, the court heard, and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison in his absence. It is believed that he might now be in Jamaica or the US.

He was convicted of smuggling cocaine, while Williams pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Judge Jeffery Blackett, sentencing Goodison at Croydon Crown Court, said: “This Raymond Goodison was, effectively, charged with importing more than a kilo of cocaine into this country.

“He used Williams, there is no doubt in my mind, so she could sew the drugs into her bra.

“She came through customs, with a child, and the offence was discovered thereafter.

“There’s no doubt that Goodison had played a leading role in this drug importation,” Blackett said.

“He was convicted before, and was sentenced to 10 years for a similar offence, and he recently had been involved in the supply of drugs. He was said to be unemployed, but had significant assets.”

Blackett said the money would have come from drug dealing.

Williams was also due to be sentenced. However, her lawyer insisted that she had been a victim of trafficking, so the judge postponed her sentencing to allow more evidence to be gathered about the claims.

Forensic scientist Fraser Johnson testified that he had been asked to examine “a size 46 D bra, which weighed 1 142g”.

Goodison had previous British convictions for importing 637g of cocaine in 1991, and was imprisoned for 10 years, and possession with intent to supply heroin in 2009, when he was sentenced to prison for five years.