SAO PAULO: German Court has sentenced four year imprisonment for a Brazilian woman who tried to smuggle €64,000 worth of cocaine into the country by pretending to be a student here the other day.
Christiane Moringa Fortis (28) presented forged documentation from an Irish college when she was stopped at Dublin Airport by immigration officials. She later admitted she had 79 pellets hidden in her vagina as well as in her bra and in sanitary towels in her luggage.
She said she had been promised €3,500 for transporting the drugs which she said she was going to use to pay legal fees to get back custody of her child.
Judge Patrick McCartan refused a defence application to impose a suspended sentence in light of the accused’s troubled background.
‘She secreted drugs in a sophisticated way on her person, in her person and in her clothing,’ the judge said. ‘She must serve a prison sentence, if nothing more than to act as a deterrent.’
He imposed a four year sentence which he backdated to when Fortis went into custody last May. The judge noted that prison will be more difficult for her because of her limited English.
Fortis of Sao Paulo, Brazil pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to importation of drugs at Dublin Airport on May 14, 2014.
Garda Enda Ledwith told prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small BL that Fortis was stopped at immigration when she arrived in Dublin via Paris. She was questioned by officers and produced forged documents from a Dublin college that showed she had enrolled there.
Fortis said her friend was meeting her at the airport. Officers became suspicious and went to arrivals where they found a man holding up a sign with her name on it. He said he wasn’t her friend and had been hired by a company to drive her to Citywest.
Fortis was detained and interviewed where he admitted she had cocaine pellets hidden inside her bra.
More pellets were found hidden in sanitary towels and she later produced several that she had hidden internally.
Gda Ledwith agreed that she fell into the category of ‘a mule’ who was working for people higher up the chain.
