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Former Deputy REO enters plea deal with Texas prosecutor
Former Deputy Region Three Executive Officer (REO) Ameena Hinds, has struck a plea deal with the US prosecutors, admitting earlier this month of conspiring to distribute cocaine.
Plea deal struck: Ameena Hinds
The official was busted last October in Texas, US, after travelling from Trinidad.
According a plea agreement dated March 2 and filed in a Texas court, Hinds is hoping to stave off up to 20 years that she would have faced had she decided to go through with a trial. She could have also faced a statutory maximum penalty of up to US$1M and supervised release of up to three years.
Hinds will likely face deportation when she has completed her sentence and has agreed to cooperate with US authorities and even a grand jury on any other probe.
She agrees, in the 12-page plea agreement that she may be denied citizenship and even admission to the US in the future. Her sentencing is set for May 26 before Judge Sim Lake.
Hinds, on October 29, last, was busted at a Texas, US airport with almost three pounds of cocaine hidden in her suitcase.
According to court documents, after her arrest, the former Region Three official told security officials that she took a chance with the drugs after a number of persons she owed, came knocking to collect. She was supposed to receive US$2,500 for the job.
According to US court documents, on October 29, at Harris Country, in the Southern District of Texas, Hinds knowingly and intentionally imported into the US over 500 grams of coke.
The court documents said that the Deputy REO touched down at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport around 13:45hrs on a United Airlines flight from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She was singled out for a secondary inspection.
Around 15:00hrs, her luggage was subject to an x-ray inspection and a strange rectangular shape was seen at the bottom between the suitcase wheels. That part of the suitcase appeared shaded on the x-ray machines when it was supposed to be clear.
Officials later inserted a metal probe and discovered a white powdery substance. They field tested it positive for cocaine.
Hinds was immediately arrested and after the cocaine was weighed, it was found to be 1.49 kilograms (three pounds).
The court documents said that Hinds was willing to answer questions without an attorney present.
She claimed that she owed US$5000 in personal debt and persons were pressuring her to pay.
In July, she met up with an unknown man whom she described as “Mystery Man”. She was offered US$2,500 ($500,000) to take a suitcase with drugs to the US.
However, the former Deputy REO was nervous and it was not until in October when she was contacted again by the “Mystery Man” that she relented.
She was given a ticket by a female and later flew to Trinidad. There, she met “Mystery Man” who gave her another suitcase. Her personal items were placed in this suitcase.
She was told to travel to New York and to stay at a hotel where she would be contacted and paid, after the suitcase and drugs would have been handed over.
In court back in November, the official pleaded not guilty to her indictment and was held without bail in November.
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