AZMEX UPDATE 23 MAR 2018
Woman gets three years probation for heroin smuggling
Nogales International Mar 6, 2018
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/woman-gets-three-years-probation-for-heroin-smuggling/article_885910f2-20b6-11e8-bf07-4f5e94d1e26d.html
An 18-year-old Tucson woman who pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs into the United States last spring was sentenced to three years of supervised probation.
Karina Soto-Alday was convicted of a Class 4 felony drug offense and sentenced Feb. 26 by Judge Anna Montoya-Paez of Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
Soto-Alday must also serve 60 days in jail with 30 additional days deferred, and she was ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.
She was caught smuggling six ounces of heroin through the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry pedestrian lanes on May 15, 2017, according to her pre-sentence report.
After a port officer noticed she had a "nervous tick on her cheek," Soto-Alday was sent to secondary inspection where a canine alerted to her groin area. She pulled out a package with a brown substance that tested positive for heroin and subsequently admitted she was going to be paid $300 by an unknown male in Tucson to smuggle the drugs.
But Soto-Alday was not immediately detained. She and her boyfriend, a Mexican national, were released back into Mexico and couldn't be reached for several weeks, her pre-sentence report says. Then on Sept. 5, after she tried to cross into the United States through the DeConcini port, Soto-Alday was detained by federal investigators and booked into the county jail.
Before her hearing, Soto-Alday provided a written statement saying her boyfriend forced her to smuggle the drugs. She said the boyfriend physically abused her, starved her, locked her in a room and threatened her with death, among other abuses.
"I was forced to do things I'd never imagined and believed it was OK. I believe I must pay for what I've done although I've suffered and went through a difficult time in my life," she wrote.
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