BRAMPTON: A Cambridge mother who smuggled cocaine into Canada by hiding the drug in wine bottles is going to jail for three years, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
Saying that Tomika DaCosta, 24, “imported a hard drug, a dangerous and highly addictive” drug into Canada, Justice Casey Hill sentenced the former Mississauga woman to three years in jail, rejecting her defence lawyer’s argument that a conditional sentence would be appropriate.
“It was agreed between the parties that the offender’s role was that of a courier unlawfully importing cocaine into Canada. The importation of cocaine is a very grave offence for which general deterrence and denunciation are the paramount sentencing considerations,” Hill said in his ruling. “While not an aggravating feature, the fact that Ms. DaCosta did not plead guilty, which would have evidenced acceptance of responsibility for her crime, does impact the leniency or compassion which might otherwise be available were the circumstances different.”
DaCosta’s lawyer, Luka Rados, placed particular emphasis on his client’s youth and lack of prior criminal record.
DaCosta, now 24, was just 19 when she smuggled cocaine from Jamaica and tried to sneak it into Canada through Pearson International Airport back on May 28, 2010.
The former Credit Bureau of Canada employee, who lived in Mississauga for several years before moving to Cambridge in 2010, was found guilty by the judge earlier this year of unlawfully importing cocaine into Canada.
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Campitelli presented evidence that DaCosta used two bottles of Stone’s Original Green Ginger Wine she purchased in Jamaica to conceal nearly two pounds of cocaine. Each bottle contained 415 grams of cocaine dissolved or suspended in amber-coloured liquid, court heard.
This tactic is just one of several innovative smuggling techniques Canada Border Services Agency officers are seeing regularly.
DaCosta was referred for secondary inspection upon entering Canada after her short trip to Jamaica and customs officers tested the outside of the two bottles of Stone’s Ginger Wine with an ion scan cloth or swab. It came back positive for traces of cocaine, court heard.
The street value of the cocaine could be as high as $91,300, court heard.
DaCosta, a mother of two, pleaded not guilty and in her evidence at trial, maintained that she was an innocent dupe with no knowledge that she had transported the illicit narcotic into Canada.
However, the judge didn’t believe her testimony and said the Crown presented a plethora of evidence.
“Apart from disbelief of the accused’s evidence as to lack of knowledge of cocaine in the wine bottles, proof of guilt has been established beyond a reasonable doubt on the whole of the evidence,” Hill said in his ruling. “The accused travelled to Jamaica in May 2010 on a short-planned trip with a plane ticket she could not afford, said to have been paid for by a third person, together with a passport issued four days before the flight. The accused was unemployed, as was her boyfriend, and pressed financially. On evaluation of the accused’s credibility, and in applying logic, common sense and human experience to the whole of the evidence, it must be concluded that she was an engaged and knowledgeable drug courier for profit.”
