Cocaine hidden in soles of shoes

A mother of three, jailed yesterday for smuggling cocaine hidden in the soles of her shoes, claimed in court that her lover gave her the footwear.

Gerly Juarez, aged 37, a chef from Costa Rica, and Nigerian haematologist Kingsley Edward, aged 44, have been jailed for importing more than €67,000 worth of cocaine hidden in the soles of their shoes.

Edward, who served a seven-and-a-half year sentence for a similar offence in Britain, told gardaí he was €30,000 in debt from his electrical goods importation business in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city.