Thu | Mar 28, 2024

St James woman gets 2 years hard labour, $2M fine for cocaine possession

Published:Tuesday | August 4, 2020 | 1:33 PM
The police report that they discovered 23 parcels of a white powdery substance resembling cocaine in her bedroom.

St James sales representative Nicole Bent has been sentenced to two years in prison at hard labour and fined $2 million or nine months imprisonment after being convicted of cocaine-related charges.

Sentencing was handed down in the St James Parish on July 20.

Bent was found guilty of possession, dealing in and taking steps proprietary to export cocaine on November 26, 2019.

Evidence was led in court that on September 9, 2015, a search was conducted on the premises of an apartment where it was alleged that drugs were being stored following an intelligence-led operation in Catherine Mount, St James.

The police later discovered 23 parcels of a white powdery substance resembling cocaine in Bent’s bedroom.  

She was thereafter arrested and charged along with businessman Raymond Copeland.

The matter was mentioned in the parish court on November 7, 2017, and the Crown offered no evidence against Copeland.

Bent was however found guilty of all charges.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us @onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.