Coke in handbag: Woman pleads guilty

Less than a week after a mother and her teen daughter were remanded to prison for trafficking cocaine, the mother on Thursday admitted to the offence and was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment and given a fine of $7.1 M.

Kavita Persaud, 40, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. Persaud pleaded guilty to the charge which alleged that on February 14, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, East Bank Demerara, she trafficked 2.660 kilograms of cocaine. When asked by the Magistrate if she had anything to say, the tearful woman said that she is a single mother of three and she was desperate, because she needed a place for herself and children to live since they are homeless. The woman added “I am very sorry for what I did. I don’t know what I was thinking. I did it for my children, because I’m poor.” Facts presented by Custom Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Prosecutor Konyo Sandiford, stated that on the day in question the woman’s daughter, Rachel Narine was scheduled to travel to the US. It was while Narine was going through the internal scanner at the airport that several bulky parcels were observed in her handbag. The prosecutor said that Narine was then intercepted at the airport and Persaud who had accompanied her to the airport was arrested and they were both taken into custody. At CANU headquarters, Persaud gave an oral statement and a written confession statement outlining her knowledge about the cocaine and the supplier’s name.

She also told ranks that the supplier had made her daughter smuggle cocaine to the US a month prior to her arrest. She was represented by Attorney-at-law Lammy Singh.

Before sentencing Persaud, the Magistrate told the court that she took into consideration the early guilty plea of the accused. She added that based on the prevalence of the offence and the fact that Persaud used her daughter \ as a drug mule, she sentenced her to four years and six months imprisonment for the offence. Prosecutor Sandiford withdrew the matter against 19-year-old Rachel Narine, who was previously charged with her mother for the offence.

(kaieteurnewsonline)