Marina Rodriguez the “drug courier” caught with more than 5,5 kilos of hashish, was sentenced yesterday by a Collective of Judges of the Court of Beja to 5 years and 6 months in prison, for a crime of trafficking and drug.
the spanish citizen, of 37 year old, resident of Cartaya, Huelva Province, was arrested on the day 14 December 2020, in Mértola, by GNR, when carrying in the trunk of the car four bags of garbage, where they were stored 598 acorns of hashish.
The Panel of Judges considered that the penalty, on the lane of suspension, should be effective because "the seizure of this amount of narcotic in the Comarca of Beja has a greater repercussion than seizures in other parts of the country", having justified that "it was a transnational trafficking and in a pandemic period".
As explained during the reading of the judgment, since last September “it's the third cannabis transport trial. The Beja region has been asserting itself as a gateway for drugs in Portugal, in particular of cannabis", revealed the president of the Collective.
During closing arguments, Marina Rodriguez's defense attorney, defended that his client "is sick and instead of being punished, must be socialized. It is a social case that cannot be fought with the whip", sustaining to the Collective of Judges that "I would dare to ask for a suspended sentence with a regime of evidence. three years and six months in prison, suspended on execution", situation that was not welcomed.
But before, the law firm had made a harsh attack on the existence of plantations cultivating hashish for medicinal purposes.: "we, Portuguese state, we are the main and first drug traffickers that we export. it (the plantations) is good for health, what this woman brought is what kills", concluded.
Until the final judgment of the judgment, the defendant will remain in preventive detention at the Tires Prison.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
