Two women who agreed to act as drug mules were yesterday sentenced to two years in prison.
Nicole Akeolo, 23, of Suriname, and Iesha Graham, 24, of Guyana and Suriname, were both arrested on Tuesday after arriving from Suriname with cocaine secreted in their luggage.
Graham had nine pounds and eight ounces of cocaine, and Akeolo had nine pounds and six ounces, the court heard.
Both women pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession with intent to supply and drug importation at their arraignment before Magistrate Jeanine Weech-Gomez.
Police arrested Graham when they went to her room at Grand Central Hotel and searched her suitcase.
Graham acknowledged that the suitcase was hers and that she was the sole occupant in the room.
She claimed that she was acting as the guardian for her siblings, ages 14 and 16, after the death of their mother a year ago.
According to Graham, she knew what she did was wrong, but she needed the money.
As for Akeolo, she was arrested at Lynden Pindling International Airport after police found cocaine in her luggage.
Akeolo claimed the home that her grandmother and children, ages two and six, lived in burned down earlier this year.
She said that a friend gave them shelter in a room.
Akeolo claimed that she asked her friend for suggestions about what she could do to help her grandmother, and the friend introduced her to a man who promised to buy her family a property if she successfully completed the smuggling mission.
While Weech-Gomez said she sympathized for each of the women's plights, she could not condone their "reckless" actions.
Each woman was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of drug possession with intent to supply and fined $10,000.
If they do not pay the fine, they would spend an additional year in prison.
Weech-Gomez also imposed a $10,000 fine in lieu of two years in prison on the importation charge. The sentences are to run concurrently.
ASP Clifford Daxon prosecuted.

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