Jun 18 - Man Jailed For Cocaine Importation
A 29-year-old man has been jailed for two years and eight months for importing almost 20g of cocaine across the land frontier into Gibraltar.
Joseph Mauro was stopped by members of the Flexible Anti-Smuggling Team (FAST) from HM Customs as he was crossing the border on foot on the 29th November last year.
He was observed to be acting nervously but said he had nothing to declare. He was taken to a search cubicle but an initial strip search did not yield any results.
Once permission to detain him for an extended period was granted, Mauro, by then in an isolation cubicle, agreed to expel a package that was concealed in his anal cavity. The package was analysed and found to contain 19.952g of cocaine.
Mauro pleaded guilty to one count of possession and one of importation of a controlled drug, refused bail and was remanded in custody.
Speaking this morning at the Supreme Court, defence lawyer Patrick Canessa said his client had expressed “regret and remorse” for his actions.
When sentencing, the Chief Justice Anthony Dudley said Mauro had acted as a courier and said that the fact that the drugs were concealed and that he acted for financial gain were aggravating factors.
Mr Justice Dudley applied a one third reduction to the overall sentence in recognition of the defendant’s early guilty plea.
He sentenced Mauro to two years and eight months for the importation charge and imposed no separate penalty for the possession charge.
James Lennane appeared for the Crown.
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