01 May 2025
A 45-year-old Columbian woman was sentenced today by the Royal Court to five and a half years in prison for the part she played in the importation of a commercial quantity of controlled drugs from South America to Jersey, and the attempted exportation of the proceeds of drug trafficking.
This conviction follows a lengthy and in-depth operation by the Jersey Customs & Immigration Service (JCIS) and marks the first time that JCIS has encountered drugs couriers travelling directly from South America to Jersey.
Senior Manager, Luke Goddard said: “This is a very significant investigation for JCIS, as it is the first time we have encountered drugs couriers travelling directly from South America to Jersey.
“We have severely disrupted an international drug trafficking syndicate from operating in the Island and I commend all the officers who were involved in this lengthy operation. JCIS will continue to target syndicates who move controlled drugs and illicit cash across our borders."
On 30 June 2024, JCIS officers arrested Marizel PERLAZA PENAGOS at hotel in St Saviour, where they found approximately £17,000 in different currencies concealed in number of places within her hotel room, this included Pounds, US Dollars and Euros.
PERLAZA PENAGOS had travelled from Bogota, in Colombia, into central Brazil where she caught a flight from Manus to Sao Paulo and then connected to Heathrow, arriving in Jersey on 25 June 2024. This was a journey of approximately 14,000 km.
It was only after her arrest and a lengthy investigation that JCIS officers we able to prove that, whilst travelling through South America, PERLAZA PENAGOS had been provided with a suitcase and handbag, both of which had built in concealments of cocaine and heroin respectively, which she then brought into Jersey.
The money that she was found with was the payment for the drugs and would have been exported by PERLAZA PENAGOS to Spain before she returned to Colombia.
PERLAZA PENAGOS had documented her travel and activity through photographs on her phone.
The investigation is continuing in relation to other individuals who were involved with this importation.
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