American fugitive woman gets 10 years for attempted narcotics export

Accra, June 27, GNA - An Accra Regional Tribunal has sentenced a 39-year-old American woman to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour for attempting to export 151.5 grams of heroin to the United States. Warren Carmella Toni, loan officer, who escaped from Police custody at one stage, pleaded not guilty to possessing the drugs when she first appeared before the Tribunal on December 21, 2005.

The Tribunal, however, found Toni guilty at the end of her trial on Monday, June 26, convicted her accordingly and ordered that she be repatriated after serving the sentence.

The facts of the case as narrated by the Prosecution were that on March 26, 2002, security personnel at the Kotoka International Airport arrested Toni, who was about to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam. The Prosecution stated that when the convict was going through departure formalities, security officers suspected her of carrying narcotic drugs and, therefore, subjected her to a thorough search. The Prosecution said the security officers found a female wig containing 18 plastic sachets of whitish powdery substance and, therefore, arrested her.

According to the Prosecution, an analytical report from the Police Forensic Laboratory on the substance proved positive for heroin, a narcotic drug.