A would-be drug smuggler was arrested on arrival at London’s Gatwick Airport recently after being found with $270,000 worth of cocaine stuffed into her 46D bra.
The smuggler, 47-year-old Nola Williams, was also caught by police along with her child and accomplice Raymond Goodison in January last year. Despite being on licence for a previous jail sentence for drugs, Goodison was bailed and has since fled the country.
The Croydon Crown Court in Britain heard that Goodison used Williams as a “drug mule” and was sentenced to 13 years in absentia.
When sentencing Goodison, Judge Jeffery Blackett said, “This man Raymond Goodison was, effectively, charged with importing over a kilo of cocaine into this country. He used Miss Williams, there’s no doubt about that, so she could sew the drugs into her bra. She came through customs, with a child and then the offence was discovered.”
The judge added that, despite the fact that Williams carried the drugs, Goodison had an equal if not bigger part in the operation.
“There’s no doubt I can infer, that he played a leading role in this drug importation. He was convicted before and he was sentenced to ten years for a similar offence and he recently had been involved in the supply of drugs. He was a man who was said to be unemployed but had significant assets,” he said .
During the trial, prosecutor Louis French told the court, “The amount we are talking about is nearly a kilo of quite high quality, about 71 per cent purity and that 973g would, if it were sold on the street, would be worth about £180,000 ($270,000).”
When forensic scientist Fraser Johnson was asked to examine the large bra, he said regarding his findings, “Inside the bra there were two plastic bags in each cup, and those plastic bags held a white powder which was found to be cocaine.”
Despite Williams’ claim that she was innocent, having been forced to smuggle the drugs, prosecutor Sean Sullivan said, “Her representatives have conversed with the prosecution and the Home Office on the issue that she may be a victim of human trafficking. [He] came to the conclusion that Miss Williams is not a victim of human trafficking.”