Drug-smuggling grandmother caught with $75,000 of cannabis | NT Independent

Drug-smuggling grandmother caught with $75,000 of cannabis

by | Jun 15, 2020 | Cops | 1 comment

A drug-smuggling grandmother who was caught by a sniffer dog trying to sneak $75,000 worth of cannabis onto Groote Eylandt has been jailed for two months.

Anthea Lalara, 37, was caught in May last year with four individual packages of the drug – complete with the names of the intended recipients – which totalled up to be 503.60 grams of cannabis.

Lalara obtained the packages in Darwin and successfully made it through Darwin Airport with them hidden under her clothing before she was stopped by a police sniffer dog when her flight landed on Groote Eylandt.

The NT Supreme Court heard Lalara had been convicted of an almost identical offence back in 2015, although the quantity on her was smaller on that occasion.

She had boarded a flight bound for Groote Eylandt when police screened her luggage at Darwin Airport and found only 22 grams of cannabis, worth around $2000.

Chief Justice Michael Grant said it was clear Lalara had not learnt from her earlier 2015 conviction.

“Despite that earlier conviction, you went on to offend in much the same way, but more seriously,” he said.

“It was obviously planned in advance by you … arrangements had been made for you to travel to Darwin to meet up to collect the cannabis, and then to travel back for the purpose of trafficking it into Groote Eylandt.

“You were clearly doing it for some sort of reward.

“Given the retail value of the drugs and the risks that you were prepared to take, I can only assume that reward was not insubstantial – whether it was to be some sort of cash payment or the receipt of part of the cannabis.”

He sentenced the grandmother of one to 18 months in prison, suspended after she had served two months.  

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1 Comment

  1. 1 pound of pot worth $75,000. Bullshit. 22 grams for $2,000, once again, BULLSHIT!!!!!

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