Woman receives four year suspended sentence for trafficking

A South African woman with an "appallingly tragic background" who brought over €30,000 worth of cannabis into Ireland has received a four-year suspended sentence from Judge Patrick McCartan.

Nosipho Bothelezi (aged 30), of Houghton Gardens, Cavendish, Johannesburg, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having drugs valued in excess of €12,697 for sale or supply on January 26, 2002.

Judge McCarten ordered that Bothelezi leave the country immediately and adjourned the case until this morning to see what arrangements could be made for her removal from the State after hearing that the DPP may consider an appeal in the matter.

Bothelezi was arrested at Dublin Airport after travelling on an Air France flight from Paris, which originated in Johannesburg. She was in financial difficulty and accepted the trip after a friend told her it was 'easy money'. She was to be paid 10,000 rand (€1,200 approx).

Bothelezi told the court that she was approached by a man named 'Quinton' to transport a suitcase to Ireland and she accepted the deal because she needed money to send her six-year-old son and five-year-old niece to school. He also gave her €550 for the trip.

The two children were in the care of a friend and her sister often helped out. She spoke to her sister on the phone every day and she told her that the man had kidnapped her son because he didn't believe she had been arrested. Bothelezi accepted that the police in South Africa had no

record of such a complaint.

"In 1999 my parents and boyfriend were shot dead with an AK47 assault rifle as part of an ongoing Zulu tribal war in the region. I was left to fend for myself and my young son," she said.

"Then in 2000 my sister died of tuberculosis and I took responsibility for her young daughter. The man in South Africa kidnapped my son because he thought I had ran off with his money and didn't believe I was in custody.

"Thankfully my son was since found well in his apartment and the reason no complaint might be on the court record is because I think Quinton could be paying the police over there," she added.

Judge McCartan said Bothelezi came from an appallingly tragic background and it was only under extraordinary circumstances that he considered suspending the sentence.

"There seems to be no let up in drugs coming into this jurisdiction from South Africa and the courts are obliged and expected to deal firmly with people like this accused," he said.

"However, this is an extraordinary case and I see no useful purpose in sending this woman to prison. It would be unfair and unjust in all the circumstances," he concluded.

Garda James O'Driscoll told Judge McCartan that the seizures of cannabis at Dublin Airport coming from South Africa had steadily risen in the last few years.

He said there was 12 cases in 1999 and 2000, there was 31 cases last year and already this year there was 27. Some of the drugs were destined for the Irish market but most would be transferred on to London.

None of the drugs found there way on to the streets to the normal cannabis abusers, however. All the shipments were meant for South Africans living outside of their native country.