A 64-year-old Ghanaian woman was convicted for attempting to smuggle drugs into the US and sentenced to
twenty seven months in prison by a New York City court.
According to the New York Daily News, Rose Amanor was arrested at
Kennedy Airport after disembarking on a flight from Amsterdam last year.
The search revealed she was travelling with three kilograms of heroin
stuffed inside a haul of dry fish. She claimed her son duped her into
carrying the bag
into the city.
Her lawyers
begged for mercy citing her advanced age and poor health, requesting a
short sentence so she could return to Africa. But Federal Judge Eric
Vitaliano was not having it, saying she had told ‘incessant number of
fishy stories'
"I find it totally incredible that Mrs. Amanor didn’t know
what it was that she was doing, Judge Vitaliano said. "It certainly was a
disrespect for the law, sitting in this courtroom and spinning this
incredible tale under oath."
The judge pointed out that if Mrs Amour had not been intercepted, the drugs would have wreaked havoc on young people.
In court, Amanor, who could almost certainly speak English, said she
couldn’t, and requested a Twi translator. This was despite, as the Daily
News put it: ‘that English is the national language of Ghana, and when
she was arrested she was carrying two Bibles, a dietary nutrition plan,
and other documents written in English, and had received numerous emails
from her son written in English.’
Amanor
begged the judge through the interpreter saying: "I am asking you to
have mercy on me so I can go home to my family and enjoy whatever time I
have left with my family
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