JOEL Leander on Wednesday pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking, and in addition to a five-year prison sentence was fined $8,163,000.

The matter was heard by Magistrate George at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court, where Leander’s co-accused appeared and entered guilty pleas.

The Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), in a press release, said Leander, Satrohan Hardowar, and Lorna Scott-Williams appeared before the magistrate in relation to the offence of possession of 5.442 kilograms of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Scott-Williams and Hardowar both pleaded not guilty, and were remanded to prison pending trial, while Leander pleaded guilty and was sentenced.

Further, CANU said that in relation to a separate charge involving the possession of 3.592 kilograms of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, Scott-Williams also appeared before Magistrate George at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court, where she pleaded not guilty to the charge, and was remanded to prison, pending trial.

According to the CANU, she has a prior history of narcotics offences.

It was disclosed that in October 2015, she, her husband, and three others were charged with trafficking 3.840 kilograms of cocaine and 36.5 grams of cannabis, during which large sums of local and foreign currency were seized.

In July 2017, she and her husband, Gordon “Monkey Harry” Williams, were convicted. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $30,000, while she received a three-year prison sentence and a similar fine for trafficking narcotics.