New York City prosecutors sentenced a 64-year-old Ghanaian woman to more than two years in prison Friday for stuffing heroin inside dried fish and trying to smuggle the drug-filled treats into the United States.
The fishy smuggler was caught by officials at John F. Kennedy airport with three kilos of heroin, after an attentive customs agent singled her out for inspection upon her arrival last February on a flight from Amsterdam originating in Ghana, the New York Daily News reported.
Rose Amanor’s 27-month sentence was short compared to the six-and-a-half years in prison prosecutors originally threatened.
Trying to excuse herself, the woman blamed her son for coercing her to bring the heroin to the US, according to the Daily News.
‘I am asking you to have mercy on me so I can go home to my family and enjoy whatever time I have left with my family,’ the woman said through an interpreter.
But the judge called her out on what he referred to as an ‘incessant number of fish stories’ told to authorities.
‘I find it totally incredible that Mrs. Amanor didn’t know what it was that she was doing,’ federal judge Eric Vitaliano said according to the Daily News.
‘It certainly was a disrespect for the law, sitting in this courtroom and spinning this incredible tale under oath.’
Amanor, who has been in custody for 13 months, had her request of a sentence of time served denied, and will be deported to Ghana upon her release from prison.
