Businesswoman gets 4 years, fined $5M for narcotics trafficking

More than three years after being slapped with cocaine trafficking charges, 39-year-old Joy Jacqueline Caines, of Luckhoo Street, Lodge Housing Scheme, Georgetown, was found guilty by Senior Magistrate Dylon Bess.
The verdict was handed down when the cocaine mule appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Friday.

Caines initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, which detailed that on April 16, 2017, at Luckhoo Street, Lodge, she had 2.092 kilograms of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking.
The prosecution had contended that on April 16, 51-year-old Bernadette Warren was arrested at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, with some 1.504 kilograms of cocaine in her suitcases.
Upon her arrest, she implicated Caines as the person who supplied her with the illegal substance.

As such, ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) swooped down on the now-convicted woman’s house and conducted a search.
During the search, an empty suitcase with false walls was found with the drugs along with $14.5 million.
Both Warren and Caines made appearances in 2017 before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
However, Warren did not waste the court’s time, as she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve three years’ imprisonment.
Throughout the trial, the mother of two was represented by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes. Magistrate Bess sentenced Caines to four years behind bars and fined her $5,667,228 for the offence.