South African jailed after drugs found in frames

A South African woman who imported cannabis herb worth up to €80,000 hidden in 15 picture frames has been jailed for four years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Nomsa Nwana, aged 31, from Norfolk Road, Dublin 7 was arrested at a shipping warehouse near Dublin Airport after a sniffer dog detected the drugs in a suitcase some days earlier.

She told gardaí a friend asked to bring a number of pictures from Johannesburg to Ireland to be put on exhibit and possibly sold. She said she didn’t know drugs were stored in the picture frames.

Nwana, originally from South Africa, pleaded guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on October 9, 2003. She has no previous convictions.

Judge Frank O’Donnell said he did not believe that Nwana could be so naïve to believe that she was transporting these paintings for the purposes she told the gardaí.

"I believe her story is unconvincing and implausible. I have serious doubt about Ms Nwana’s vulnerability."

In the previous hearing on July 28, Garda Jane Heaney told Mr Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that the drugs were found by customs officers after a random search at the Dunwoody Airline Services.

Nwana’s name was on the documentation for the suitcase and she was told she could collect it three days later.

When she was arrested she told gardaí a friend named "Kingsley" asked her to bring over the paintings and she returned to South Africa on September 22, 2003 to collect them. She was not allowed take the suitcase on the plane because it was too heavy and it had to be shipped.

Garda Heaney said there were 20 kilos of cannabis in various packages inside the frames of 15 pictures. The estimated street value ranged from €70,000 to €80,000.

Garda Heaney added they contacted "Kingsley" in South Africa but he denied any knowledge of Nwana.

Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, for Nwana, said his client moved to Ireland in 2001 and gave birth to a girl here. The baby, who is now three, had been brought back to South Africa where it now lived with its grandmother.

Judge O Donnell told the court that although he is convinced that Nwana was "part and parcel of this operation", he found it "unjust" to impose the mandatory 10 year sentence for such a crime.

The last two years of Nwana sentence was suspended due to her guilty plea. Nwana must leave the country immediately after her sentence has been served.