Derek Achong

A 69-year-old grand­moth­er was among two women who were yes­ter­day con­vict­ed in the Port-of-Spain High Court for at­tempt­ing to traf­fic co­caine hid­den in their shoes. Grace Pierre-Hold­er of Gas­par­il­lo, who walks with the as­sis­tance of a cane, stood silent­ly be­fore Jus­tice Car­la Browne-An­toine as the ver­dict was read by the fore­man of an eight-mem­ber ju­ry. It took the ju­ry the en­tire three hours al­lot­ted to them for de­lib­er­a­tions to re­turn with the guilty ver­dict for both women. Pierre-Hold­er was joint­ly charged with 29-year-old Deanah John-Finn of Old South­ern Main Road, Clax­ton Bay for pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing.

Both women were re­mand­ed in cus­tody by Jus­tice Browne-An­toine un­til she hears their mit­i­ga­tion pleas for sen­tenc­ing which is sched­uled for next Thurs­day. The duo was ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers of the Or­gan­ised Crime, Nar­cotics and Firearms Bu­reau on Feb­ru­ary 10, 2000 at Pi­ar­co Air­port while at­tempt­ing to board an Amer­i­can Air­lines flight which was bound for Mi­a­mi, Flori­da en route to Lon­don, Eng­land. The women were in the com­pa­ny of Pierre-Hold­er's daugh­ter Michelle Leslie, al­so of Clax­ton Bay, and Ja­son Con­nell, her boyfriend at the time. Con­nell was found guilty of the of­fence in the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates' Court while Leslie plead­ed guilty. They were both fined.