TWO British women who were caught trying to smuggle ganja-laced coffee out of the country were this week fined close to $170,000 plus two months jail time.

At about 7:30 pm on April 17, Sonia Duncan, 32, and 26 year-old Natasha Millington boarded an Air Jamaica flight to London but were later taken from the plane and asked to identify their suitcases, which they did.

The 19 pounds of ganja found in each of the suitcases was intermingled with coffee beans inside coffee bags.

When they appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court Monday, the two women pleaded guilty to possession of, dealing in and attempting to export ganja. Their attorney, Norman Manley, then asked the court to grant them mercy.

In his submission, he said his clients were paying the costly price for the offer of a vacation they had been offered to Jamaica.

He alluded to Millington’s relative youth and to the fact that she was the mother of two little boys who needed her. He painted a similar picture of Duncan who, he said, was the mother of a little boy and a little girl.

“Yes, they should have known better (and) realise that they were putting their children at risk. (But) I’m going to ask the court to be as lenient, under the circumstances, as the court can be,” Manley said.

For possession of the drug, the two were each fined $14,000 or six months each. For dealing in the drug, they were each fined $28,000 or six months. And for attempting to export the drug, they were each fined $42,000 or six months and sentenced to two months in prison.