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Mother of one gets 3 years, fine on drug trafficking charge
Althea Candace Timmerman, a 21-year- old mother of one, has been jailed for trafficking cocaine.
Althea Candace Timmerman
Receptionist of a West Coast Demerara hotel, Timmerman yesterday confessed to Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry that she attempted to smuggle the drug to Barbados last Saturday. She was handed a three year jail term.
She was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine, the minimum imposable on a drug trafficking charge.
Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) brought Timmerman before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on allegations that she had 1.134 kilograms of cocaine in her possession for trafficking purposes at the Ogle International Airport on January 10, last.
CANU’s Prosecutor, Oswald Massiah told the court that Timmerman hails from Bartica but up to the time she was busted at the airport, she lived at 1255 Cane View Avenue, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
Massiah claimed that one day while Timmerman was at Demico House; she became acquainted with a male and later developed a relationship with him. He described the man as a “mystery” since the anti-drug unit has no address for him.
According to Massiah, the man later asked the young woman if she would be willing to transport the drug to Barbados and she consented.
On January 9, the Prosecutor said that the man met her and gave her a suitcase. Massiah emphasised that although the drug was hidden in the false bottom and she had not seen it, Timmerman knew that it was concealed there.
Massiah went on to say that the 21-year-old packed the suitcase with her personal belongings and the next day she ventured to the airport with intentions of boarding a LIAT flight to Barbados.
The Prosecutor related that as Timmerman’s suitcase was being scanned, a CANU Officer noticed something was amiss and decided to check it. It was then that the illicit substance was unearthed.
The 21-year-old was arrested and charged.
During mitigation, the 21-year-old, who represented herself, told the Chief Magistrate that she is a mother of one and had decided to participate in the drug trade because of her five-year-old daughter.
Timmerman added that this was her first offence and asked the court to be lenient in sentencing her. Additionally, the Prosecutor reported that she had been cooperating with the anti-drug unit during the investigations.
She was thereafter given the minimum imposable sentence.
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