British woman charged after cocaine found her suitcase
ST ANDREW, Jamaica — A British woman was brought to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday in connection with cocaine allegedly being found in her luggage as she was checking in to board a flight to London from the Norman Manley International Airport.
The woman, Elisha Grant, told Senior Parish Judge, Lori-Ann Cole-Montague, that she didn’t know anything about the cocaine that was found in her luggage.
The allegations are that on November 9, Grant was checking in to board a flight to London, when a sniffer dog brought attention to a luggage that Grant claimed belonged to her. After an investigation was done by airport staff, three plastic packages with a white-coloured substance, which was later found to be cocaine, were taken from the suitcase.
The value of cocaine found was not disclosed to the court.
When asked whether or not she was guilty of being in possession of cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine, attempting to export cocaine and dealing in cocaine, Grant maintained that she had no idea how the packages got in her luggage.
Seeing her difficulty in understanding the proceedings, Cole-Montague assigned attorney-at-law Clifford Smith to provide counsel.
“Who do you have in Jamaica, ma’am? Do you have any family [or] any friends here?” Cole-Montague asked, to which Grant indicated that the connection she has is her daughter’s brother.
However, since the file is incomplete, Grant was ordered to return to court on January 12, 2023, for the case to be mentioned.