Sandra Daniels, the woman accused of trying to mail cocaine to Spain in a box of nail files in May, will be spending the next five years of her life in prison after being found guilty of the crime.
In addition to the prison sentence, Daniels, a 50-year-old grandmother of 15, was also fined $739,800 for trafficking the drug by city Magistrate Judy Latchman, who presided over her trial.
Daniels was unresponsive when the sentence was handed down. She had been expressionless during the review of the evidence presented during the trial and the factors which the court had to consider in arriving at its decision.
The charge against Daniels of Lot 2 Dennis Street, Sophia stated that on May 8, at the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), on Robb Street, Georgetown, she had 274 grammes of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking. She had pleaded not guilty to the charge at her arraignment on May 9 and was remanded to prison. She was granted bail at a subsequent hearing.
Attorney Dexter Todd appeared at yesterday’s hearing for Daniels, after informing the court that her attorney had asked him to appear on her behalf.
Before sentencing, Todd explained that he was meeting Daniels for the first time. After consulting with her briefly, he begged the court for mercy on her behalf.
He asked the court to consider her age and the fact that she has 15 grandchildren who depend on her for care since their parents work and are not always present. He said she has been available to care for them because she was unemployed.
“Please for great mercy on this 50-year-old woman,” Todd pleaded.
When asked to address the court on previous convictions, Todd said that his client’s records were unblemished.
He, was, however visibly taken aback after being informed by the court and the prosecution that Daniels had revealed during her trial that she had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment in England on narcotic-possession charges.
When asked by the court to substantiate whether she hadn’t revealed being imprisoned in England, Daniels said no. The magistrate was surprised at the woman’s denial.
It was at this point that Oswald Massiah, the Special Prosecutor for the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) pinpointed from his case file that on May 9 Daniels had told the court that she spent seven years in an England prison for trafficking narcotics after which she was deported to Guyana, having spent only 33 months behind bars.
The woman, however, continued denying ever having said that, shaking her head in the negative to ever having previous convictions in Guyana or any other part of the world.
A somewhat embarrassed Todd then begged the court not to take that sentence into consideration in handing down a penalty but rather to consider the woman’s age and grandchildren. “She is sorry for this entire matter,” Todd concluded.
Before informing Daniels that she will be spending the next five years behind bars, Magistrate Latchman chastised her, stating that at her age and with so many grandchildren, “one would think that she would have some wisdom to pass on to those grandchildren.”
“I don’t know what kind of journey you embarked upon that day posting salon products to Spain,” the magistrate said. “Your actions were devious, wicked and will not be tolerated by this court,” she emphasised.
The prosecution’s facts were that on the day in question, Daniels had gone to the post office with the intention of shipping a box to Spain.
A perfunctory check was performed on the box and found that it contained a number of salon products, including false nails and nail files. A closer inspection was performed and revealed 42 nail files with plastic bags concealed within the middle of each. The plastic bags, Massiah said, contained what was suspected to be cocaine.
The woman was cautioned and told of the suspicion. She had explained that someone from Spain who had visited Guyana two weeks prior, had asked her to post the box.
She was told of the offence, arrested and taken to the CANU headquarters, where the substance was tested and weighed in her presence.
Among the things considered in determining the sentence, Magistrate Larchman said, was the fact that the strong scent which emanated from the box should have aroused Daniel’s suspicion to question what exactly it contained.
The magistrate questioned also the manner in which the defendant decided to take the box for posting from a stranger, who merely claimed to her that he had no documents to substantiate a proof of address and as such could not post the box himself since he was on vacation here.
The court added also that it was satisfied that the drug was in Daniels’ care, custody and control and that since she admitted knowing that the box contained salon products she should have questioned why such items were being posted to a developed country.
In determining the fine, the magistrate stated that although the drug’s value on the street was $246,600, Daniels was being fined three times more for the amount trafficked.
