Outstanding forensic certificate stalls British woman’s cocaine case
Published:Tuesday | January 24, 2023 | 12:38 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
An outstanding forensic certificate has forced the St James Parish Court to delay the continuation of the case against Ashanta Ferguson, the British woman charged last November in relation to the seizure of two kilogrammes of cocaine, until March 27 when the matter will be mentioned.
Ferguson, a 20-year-old customer service agent of a West Midlands address in England, had her $1 million bail extended when her case was brought up before presiding parish judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton on Monday, January 23.
During the case’s brief mention, it was disclosed that the forensic certificate was outstanding from the prosecution’s case file and would not be ready for another two weeks.
As a result, Judge Fairclough-Hylton set March as the next date to facilitate the file’s completion and extended Ferguson’s bail to that time.
When The Gleaner sought additional comments from Ferguson’s attorney, Charles Williams, concerning his client’s matter, he refused to divulge further information, citing the discretion of the defendants’ relatives as the reason.
“I cannot share anything without the family’s permission,” Williams said briefly before directing The Gleaner to speak with the clerk of the St James Parish Court. FALSE COMPARTMENTS
During Ferguson’s previous court appearance on November 28, 2022, at which time she was offered bail in the sum of $1 million with three sureties, Williams had argued before presiding judge Kaysha Grant that his client should be offered bail on the grounds that she had been duped into carrying the contraband overseas.
At that time, Judge Grant had complained that the parish of St James had become a haven for drug activity in recent times, with would-be smugglers making use of local ports and courier companies to smuggle cocaine.
Grant had also expressed concern that accused drug peddlers may often defy efforts to stop the illicit trade, citing the case of Americans Regina West-Thompson and Simone Bolden, who absconded bail in 2021 despite stop orders in place to prevent them leaving Jamaica. West-Thompson and Bolden were arrested in June 2021 after they were reportedly held with nine pounds of cocaine valued at $6.7 million.
In relation to Ferguson’s case, the allegations are that on November 19, 2022, at about 7 p.m., she was at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, preparing to board a departing flight to the United Kingdom, when her luggage was subjected to a routine search.
During the search, two packages of cocaine with a street value of approximately £50,000 (J$9.5 million) were found concealed in false compartments of her luggage.
Ferguson was subsequently interviewed in the presence of her attorney on Monday, November 21, following which she was charged with possession of cocaine, dealing in cocaine, attempting to export cocaine, and conspiracy to export cocaine.