A Jamaican drug courier tried to smuggle pnds stlg

A Jamaican drug courier tried to smuggle pnds stlg 43,000 into the country dissolved in a health food drink, the Old Bailey heard today.

(Weds)

Marcia Biersay-Porter was snared by Heathrow customs who found nearly half a kilo of the class A drug in tins smuggled inside her suitcase, a jury was told.

The 33-year-old aroused suspicion after an immigration official found she was carrying forged work documents and denied her entry to the UK.

A search of her unclaimed bag on the carousel in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 revealed three tins of an energy boosting drink containing cocaine in liquid suspension.

Janet Weeks, prosecuting, said the energy-boosting drink called Supligen consisted of 491 grammes at 100 percent purity.

‘The value of this cargo is just over pnds stlg 43,000,’ said Miss Weeks.

The court heard Biersay-Porter landed at Heathrow on an Air Jamaica flight from Kingston on July 1 this year.

She claimed the purpose of her visit was to spend a fortnight with an uncle called Derek Williams based in Kitson Rd, Camberwell, southeast London.

But quizzed by an immigration official the defendant gave a different address to the one stated on papers claiming she worked as a supermarket sales assistant.

She was then refused entry to the country, said Miss Weeks.

Meanwhile a customs officer checked her bag on the carousel and tested the contents of the cans which proved positive for cocaine.

Biersay-Porter said she had packed the bag herself and ‘significantly’ that had not been given anything by anyone else to bring to the UK.

She denied any knowledge of the cocaine inside the tins, the court heard.

But then Biersay-Porter admitted she was not related to Derek Williams.

She told customs officers a man called ‘Sammy’ in Jamaica had asked her to carry the tins to a friend of his called Derek Williams when visiting the UK.

‘He said he had a friend who would write her a letter of invitation and a letter of employment for her and would put her up.

His name was Derek Williams.

‘Sammy asked her to give Mr Williams the tins.

‘

But Miss Weeks told the jury: ‘There was no dispute there was in importation of cocaine by Mrs Biersay-Porter.

‘But you have to decide whether she knew she was carrying the illicit cargo, the cocaine, in her suitcase.

‘

Biersay-Porter, of no fixed address, denies being knowingly concerned in the importation of a Class A drug, namely cocaine, on July 1 this year.

The trial continues
ends