A 54-year-old woman, who pleaded guilty to attempting to leave the island with 4.5kg (10 lb) of ganja, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment at hard labour when she appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

The court was told that on February 8, Leta Thompson was preparing to board a flight to Trinidad, when a sniffer dog alerted the police to her luggage. Her bags were searched and the ganja found in a false compartment.

When she appeared in court, Thompson pleaded guilty to possession, dealing in and taking steps to export marijuana. She told the court that she used to do higglering, but had fallen on hard times. She said she did not know anyone in Trinidad and was sent there by a friend whom she had met three weeks before. She said she did not know the friend's name.

Just met man

She told the court: "Im jus' meet mi and im seh when I go I will get some money. But when I go in di plane, a man come tek mi out." She said it was her first time travelling overseas.

She was sentenced to $15,000 or six months for possession, admonished and discharged for dealing, and $45,000 or six months for taking steps to export the drug. In addition, she was sentenced to a mandatory six-month term.