Businesswoman on cocaine charges fined more than $200k, avoids prison term
KINGSTON, Jamaica — A Corporate Area businesswoman who was held with more than two pounds of cocaine at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston in September 2022, pleaded guilty and was fined a total of $245,000 when she made her appearance at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday.
Tashika Grant was fined $15,000 for possession of cocaine and $230,000 for attempting to export cocaine, a sentence considered lenient after her lawyer argued that she was forced into carrying the drugs by unknown men who threatened and sexually assaulted her.
The charges of conspiracy to export cocaine and dealing in cocaine were dismissed.
In handing down the non-custodial judgement, Senior Parish Judge, Lori-Ann Cole Montague, recalling the evidence presented in the case, said that while the offences against Grant were serious, she took into consideration what the defendant had been through.
Grant’s lawyers in their request for leniency reminded the Court of his client’s good character outlining that before the infraction, she had no run-ins with the law. He shared that his client was under constant surveillance by unknown men who threatened to harm her if she did not comply with their request to transport the drugs. He said that in fear of her life, Grant felt she had no other choice but to do as she was told.
Grant was reportedly about to board a flight for Florida on September 1, 2022, when she was searched by security personnel and the cocaine weighing more than two pounds discovered.