Criminology and Psychology

Carol Andrea Gilmore, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty to importing more than 200 grams of cannabis resin on November 5. She also admitted possessing the drug with intent to supply. "I would just like to apologise for my actions," the 41-year-old mother-of-two told Magistrates' Court. "I'm deeply sorry. For the sake of my children and my mom, have mercy on me please." According to Crown counsel Maria Sofianos, Gilmore entered the Island on a commercial flight from Toronto, Ontario around 12.10 p.m. She took one piece of luggage off the conveyor belt at LF Wade International Airport, and left. At 2.10 p.m. that day, the Police Drug Unit Office received information in relation to Gilmore, who was staying at the Clear View Suites & Villas in Hamilton Parish. Officers arrived at the guest cottages where they found the defendant at the front desk, asking for calling cards. She proceeded to leave the front desk, at which time officers approached...

Drug mules are playing a 'game of chance' with their lives as they swallow liquid cocaine to try to make some quick money.Narcotics police on the island are on the lookout for smugglers who could be heading to the island after gulping down scores of homemade drug capsules.Seeing "nothing but dollar signs", the mules can swallow up to a kilo of liquid cocaine - which has a street value in Bermuda of about $30,000. They line their stomachs with liquid cocaine pellets stashed inside latex, even though the tiniest of tears can cause the liquid drug to seep out and kill them.This form of drug smuggling - known as body packing - is on the increase across the world and overdoses and deaths are not uncommon. Narcotics officer Sergeant Hayden Small spoke to the Bermuda Sun about the police service's "growing concern" and suggested swallowers could already be getting onto the island.Sgt. Small, who has specialized in narcotics for 12 years, said: "These swall...

Federal authorities in New Jersey say they have broken up a drug trafficking ring that was a major supplier of marijuana to Bermuda -- in the process touching off a political scandal on the island. Two men, one a resident of Bloomfield and the other alleged to be the husband of a top government official in Bermuda, were arrested after agents seized 700 pounds of marijuana last week at a warehouse in Orange. Douglas Collier, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Newark, said the operation differed from most, because rather than importing drugs into this country the traffickers were big-time exporters. The agency believes the traffickers had made five shipments totaling more than 2,000 pounds from Port Newark to Bermuda since last summer. Agents valued the pot at $15 million. "It was unique," Collier said. "They were taking advantage of this beautiful island without law enforcement looking at them." Taken into custody at the warehouse on July 15 were ...