British woman caught with €500,000 of cannabis herb jailed

By Eimear Dodd

A British woman who was caught at Dublin Airport transporting over €500,000 of cannabis herb has been jailed.

Yejeida Johnson (27) was detained at Dublin Airport on September 2 last year by customs officials. She had arrived from New York’s JFK airport and was due to take a connecting flight to Manchester.

She had boarded this flight, but was flagged as a suspect through profiling and taken off the plane before it left. A large quantity of cannabis herb was found in her luggage, the court heard.

Dublin Circuit  Criminal Court heard on Friday that it was initially suspected that Johnson’s luggage contained 37kg of cannabis herb, however, analysis confirmed the weight of the drug was actually 26kg, with a value of €520,340.

She was arrested and made limited admissions during interview. Johnson accepted ownership of the luggage and said a friend had asked her to transport it. She also told gardai that she thought the luggage contained high-end handbags and luxury goods.

Johnson, with no fixed address in Ireland, was sent forward from the District Court on signed pleas to counts of possessing and importing a controlled drug for sale or supply.

She has no previous convictions in Ireland, but one minor unrelated conviction in the United Kingdom from 2018.

An investigating garda agreed with defence counsel that his client told them she was asked to transport the luggage. It was also accepted that she provided an address in Tottenham, London to gardai.

A letter of apology and a reference were handed to the court by defence counsel.

He said his client has had no visitors while in custody, but two members of her family had travelled to support her in court.

Counsel said Johnson was at the “disposable end” of the scale and difficulties in her life made her “more open” to be “taken advantage of” by third parties.

He said his instructions are that Johnson “knew she was doing wrong” but had “no idea” of the amount of drugs involved.

He also asked the court to take into account her signed pleas of guilty and her work history.

Judge Martin Nolan said the court accepted Johnson was “imposed upon” to transport the drugs into this jurisdiction. He continued by noting that it’s “not clear” if the drugs were to remain here or continue to the UK.

He said Johnson “seems to be a well-meaning lady” and that he had taken into consideration the mitigating features of the case.

The judge expressed the view that it is unlikely Johnson will  re-offend in future “by virtue of her previous good behaviour”. However, he said she “has to suffer imprisonment” as she “transported a large amount of drugs into this jurisdiction”.

He imposed a sentence of four and a half years, backdated to September 4 last year.