A 23-year-old mother of one has been sentenced to 3 years in jail For the importation of over €86,000 worth of cocaine into Ireland on the 17th of November 2024.
Beatriz Carvalho, who has an address in Sao Paulo, appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court this morning after she pleaded guilty to one count of importing illegal substances contrary to the Section 15B of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Garda Cian Keating of Ballymun Garda station of Carvalho’s caution and arrest after immigration officers at Dublin Airport Terminal 1 became suspicious of her after her arrival off a flight from Brazil via Paris.
The court heard that the officers noticed that the young woman was alone and asked her what her business in Ireland was whereupon she made admissions that she had swallowed 50-60 pellets of cocaine and that there was a package concealed within her person.
The accused, who was aided in court by a Portuguese interpreter, had €1,345 euros in cash on her person which had been given to her in order to cover her expenses while en route to Dublin where she was to meet another person to pass on the drugs.
Carvalho ’s told Gardaí that she was to be paid the equivalent of €2,000 in Brazilian currency for agreeing to act as a mule and that she did this out of necessity due to financial hardship in circumstances were she is a single mother to her 5-year-old son.
The court heard prosecution evidence that Carvalho had used the bathroom while in the presence of a female immigration officer where she “passed 7 large pellets” and removed a “large packet” from within her person which contained 30 pellets.
After Gardaí arrested and conveyed her to Ballymun Garda station she was brought to Beaumont Hospital where she was kept for treatment until the remaining pellets were passed.
In all she had ingested or concealed 110 pellets of cocaine with a total value of €86,763.60.
On the 21st of November 2024 she was returned to Ballymun Garda station where she made full admissions.
Carvalho said that she was working as a waitress and a cleaner in order to support herself and her child while residing with the boy’s godmother.
She said that she was given the pellets at a house in Sao Paulo and that she had ingested some and “put the rest in the back and the front”.
The court heard that she has no previous convictions, including in her home country.
Carvalho’s defending counsel argued that his client had been “fairly forthcoming” with the authorities and that she comes from a “very modest background” and that she lives in a “rather poor suburb”.
Three translated letters from her mother, father, and sister respectively were handed to the court in which the family explained that the accused was a “helpful” person who suffers from a hormone disorder.
Her mother expressed her shock on discovering that her daughter had been arrested in Ireland writing that she “never arrived home under influence of drugs or alcohol” and that her young son – who she gave birth to at the age of 17 – “cries a lot and constantly asks for his mother”.
Considering sentencing, Judge Orla Crowe emphasised the “harm caused to society due to drug trafficking” which “wreak havoc” on society.
She noted that the maximum sentence for drug trafficking is life, with the offence carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
Judge Crowe said the court would take account of the fact that the accused is a foreign national and that family visits will “not be available in the way it would to a person who is from this jurisdiction.”
She said that the offence at hand was “undoubtedly a very serious matter” that “foreign nationals cannot think that they can bring illegal drugs into this country”, and that this “message has to go out”.
The aggravating factors were the amount of drugs involved, she said, noting that Calaho “undertook a certain amount of personal risk” by ingesting and concealing that amount of cocaine.
The mitigating circumstances include the early guilty plea, the early admissions, and that the accused is “a long way from her family” and that she is the “single mother of a child who is missing her”.
Setting a headline sentence of 6 years which was reduced to 3 years in total to be backdated to the 17th of November last year when the accused was taken into custody.
A destruction order was granted in respect of the drugs and cash involved.