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BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

Women imprisoned for drug importation

Guilty: Desiree Burrows, 21, and Shaniqwa O'Brien, 20, leave Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Two women who smuggled almost $30,000 worth of drugs into Bermuda have been jailed for 18 months.Desiree Burrows, 21, and Shaniqwa O'Brien, 20, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court yesterday, to conspiracy to import drugs. Crown counsel Maria Sofianos said the pair concealed cannabis resin in their bodies before boarding a chartered flight from Jamaica to Bermuda on January 8.Burrows, of Orchard Lane, Pembroke, and O'Brien, of Butterfield Lane, Southampton, drew suspicion from Customs officers after arriving at LF Wade International Airport.Ms Sofianos said Burrows appeared nervous at the secondary inspection point. When questioned, she told the officer she had been caught with drugs in Miami in 2007 but was trying to get her life back on track.After a clear search of her luggage and her person, Burrows said she would comply with an X-ray. She denied ingesting drugs but was put in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) where she passed 27 pellets over the next two days.The pellets were found to contain 141.5 grams of cannabis resin. Burrows admitted in a January 12 police interview to conspiring with others to import drugs into Bermuda.Ms Sofianos said O'Brien also appeared “nervous and fidgety” to Customs officers upon her arrival in Bermuda.Acting on intelligence, Customs requested her consent for an X-ray, to which O'Brien answered: “B******t, I've been through that already.”O'Brien was arrested and taken to KEMH.The following day she removed an object from her body containing 19 pellets and later passed a further seven a total of 141.5 grams of cannabis resin.She admitted conspiring to import in a police interview on January 14, saying she and her friend were to split $5,000 in exchange for bringing in the drugs.The two women were charged in Magistrates' Court on February 1, and released on $10,000 bail. Burrows was held in police custody because she was unable to “perfect” bail by providing the court with a surety.The combined smuggled cannabis resin would have sold for $28,300 on Bermuda's streets, Magistrates' Court heard yesterday.O'Brien told police the deal was arranged by a Bermudian male whom she could not name.The two women were represented by lawyer Larry Scott.The Crown offered no evidence for a charge of possession with intent to supply.Burrows told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner: “I understand what I did and I need to take responsibility for my actions. I don't know why I did it. I had a job.”O'Brien apologised and said she just wanted to get back to living her life.Mr Warner sentenced them to 18 months' imprisonment each, to begin immediately.