A TWENTY-year-old Cummings Street, Sophia woman, who was caught smuggling cannabis into the Lusignan Prison in a quantity of blue soaps, was, on Wednesday, fined $39,200 and sentenced to six months of community service.

Monique Caesar appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court, charged with drug trafficking and smuggling a prohibited substance into the prison.

Caesar pleaded guilty to the charge which read that on November 1, 2021, at Lusignan Prison, East Coast Demerara, she had 22 grams of cannabis in her possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The woman further admitted that on the same date and location, she carried a prohibited article into the prison.

Magistrate Azore fined Caesar $13,200 and sentenced her to six months of community service for the drug trafficking charge and $26,000 or default imprisonment for the other charge.

According to reports on the day in question, Caesar went to the Lusignan Prison to take items for an inmate.

During a mandatory search, prison officials found a quantity of blue soap in the woman’s bag. Upon examination of the soaps, ranks found eight plastic parcels of cannabis inside.  Caesar was arrested and later charged.