MELBOURNE nurse facing the death penalty for drug trafficking in Malaysia denies any knowledge of the stash and claims she was abandoned by her boyfriend who fled the scene.

Emma L'Aiguille, the Melbourne nurse facing drug charges in  Malaysia.  Picture: Flickr Source: HWT Image Library

 

Emma Louise L'Aiguille, 34, wept throughout the court hearing in Kuala Lumpur today as police continued to search for her partner.

It is alleged he left the scene minutes before officers searched their parked car and found 1.05 kilograms of methamphetamine - commonly known as ice - stashed under a back seat.

Ms L'Aiguille was in the driver's seat and will be hanged to death if convicted of the charge.

The incident happened on July 17 but only today was Ms L'Aiguille formally charged.

''She is completely depressed,'' her lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said.

''She just does not understand how this can happen to her, when all she did was to drive a car, in the company of some people.

''She had no clue whatsoever about the drugs,'' he added.

L'aiguille was arrested with Nigerian man Anthony Ndidi Esikalam.

One other Nigerian man escaped and police are now looking for him.

L'Aiguille and Esikalam, who both reside in Malaysia, fronted the Jalan Duta Magistrates Court in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, where they were each tentatively charged with one count of joint drug trafficking.

Under Malaysian law there's a mandatory death penalty for possession of 50 gram or more of methamphetamine.

Earlier L'Aiguille's Malaysian-based Australian lawyer, Tania Scivetti, says her client will maintain her innocence, saying the car was not hers and she did not know there were any drugs in it, despite being in the driver's seat when arrested.

Ms Scivetti says her client, who had worked as an aged-care nurse in Perth before moving to Malaysia, was suffering from depression and a chest infection, but was denied medical attention in custody.

Australian consular officials are providing assistance to her and her family in Melbourne.

She is not believed to have any family in Malaysia.

A chemist report on the alleged drugs which were found in the car will be heard in the Magistrates Court in Malaysia on October 1.

A date will then be set for a plea to be entered.

L'Aiguille is the second Australian to face the death penalty in Malaysia, after the arrest of 32-year-old Perth man Dominic Jude Christopher Bird five months ago for allegedly trying to sell them 167 gram of methamphetamine.

He has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and drug use and will appear in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday.

A Florida woman has learned that being a TSA agent isn’t all just fun, games and genital grabbing

AFP Photo/Stan Honda

A Florida woman has learned that being a TSA agent isn’t all just fun, games and genital grabbing — it can actually be quite costly. For demonstrating on an agent just how invasive those pat downs are, Carol Jean Price has been convicted of battery.

Price, 59, was charged earlier this year after she used a hand-on approach to show a Transportation Security Administration supervisor just how intrusive the screening she had just received was. Now a jury has convicted her of battery and she is being forced to pay $500 and has received six months of probation.

According to Price, she was stopped while attempting to fly to Cleveland, Ohio on April 20 to attend her brother’s funeral when she was forced to undergo a bit too rigorous of a screening. Price says of all people, she should know — she used to work for the TSA.

“(The screener) dug into my bra strap coming down,” Price told the jury. “She also swiped the palm of her hand down the front of my breast.”

“She just took the palm of her hand and went up my leg — front, back, right leg, left leg — and touched my genitals,”she added. Price also claimed that the agent “went up into my buttocks.”

When TSA supervisor Kristin Arnberg approached an outraged Price after the initial screening, the would-be passenger decided to show her just how exactly evasive the whole procedure was. Almost.

“I got up her leg, close to her genitals, but did not even get near enough to touch them,” Price told the court.

The supervisor equated the experience to the court as both painful and embarrassing. Now following this week’s return of a guilty verdict, though, the TSA is applauding the court system for finding Price at fault.

“We are thankful that the state attorney’s office recognized the severity of the violation,” TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz tells the media on Thursday, “and took the appropriate action in pursuing this conviction. This decision should send a strong message that violence against our officers will not be tolerated.”

Price’s attorney, John Mills, tells News-Press that both he and his client are disappointed about the guilty verdict but says, “The jury rejected it and we have to accept that.”

“She felt strongly about her defense,” he says of his client.

Eva Rausing may have died a week before she was found, police believe

East Volusia drug sweep nets 18 arrests, more expected

drug sweep in East Volusia by narcotics agents assisted by confidential informants Tuesday nabbed 18 people and at least 25 more arrests expected, a Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman said. "Operation Clean Sweep" targeted areas up and down the east side of Volusia County but focused on New Smyrna Beach where police executed three search warrants, said sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson. Narcotics agents seized hydrocodone and marijuana along with marijuana growing equipment at a home at 428 South Myrtle Ave., Davidson said. The drug busts were the culmination of a six-month investigation prompted by neighborhood complaints and anonymous calls reporting drug activity. In addition to a room searched at the Inn Paradise, 1157 N. Dixie Freeway, and a home at 610 Warn-Ree Circle, agents fanned out to numerous locations to pick up suspects. During the six-month investigation, undercover agents and confidential informants bought drugs ranging from marijuana, crack cocaine and hydrocodone to heroin and methamphetamine, Davidson said. Many of the suspects were street dealers already known to investigators. Agents also discovered many of the suspects had ties with one another and often traveled from city to city to either sell drugs to known addicts or supply other street dealers, Davidson said. Agents believe the suspects generated thousands of dollars worth of profits each week and sold more than $100,000 worth of illegal drugs in the past few months, Davidson said. The investigation is ongoing and agents of the multi-agency East Volusia Narcotics Task Force, assisted by the West Volusia Narcotics task Force, continue to search for another 25 people with drug warrants connected to the investigation. Those arrested, with charges and bail, include: - Terry L. Ammons, 27, New Smyrna Beach, three counts sale and delivery of cocaine. $125,000 bail. - John K. Arwood, 29, Daytona Beach, sale of a Schedule II substance. $50,000 bail. - Jessie L. Brown, 41, Edgewater, three counts sale and delivery of cocaine. $125,000 bail. - Jimmy L. Clark Jr., 38, New Smyrna Beach, sale of cocaine. $25,000 bail. - Wesley Evans III, 41, New Smyrna Beach, sale of cocaine. $20,000 bail. - Cheryl R. Ferryman, 54, Ormond Beach, two counts of trafficking hydrocodone. $100,000 bail. - Virgil George, 78, Daytona Beach, trafficking in hydrocodone, possession of marijuana under 20 grams. $25,500 bail. - Arais C. Key, 24, New Smyrna Beach, four counts sale and delivery of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana under 20 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia. $76,000 bail. - Ray E. Leach, 26, New Smyrna Beach, sale and delivery of a controlled substance. $50,000 bail. - Tondrica R. Miller, 20, Orlando, possession of marijuana under 20 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia. $1,000 bail. - Tabitha Moore, 21, New Smyrna Beach, two counts sale of cocaine. $35,000 bail. Malcolm M. Peterson, 33, New Smyrna Beach, three counts sale and delivery of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, manufacture of marijuana, possession of hydrocodone, possession of drug paraphernalia and ownership, lease, rental or possession for manufacturing cocaine. $157,000 bail. - James A. Sanator, 76, New Smyrna Beach, three counts sale of cocaine, two counts trafficking in hydrocodone, possession of drug paraphernalia. $100,500 bail. - Richard L. Sanders, 53, Ormond Beach, two counts trafficking in hydrocodone. $100,000 bail. - Carl L. Walker, 57, New Smyrna Beach, sale and delivery of cocaine, possession of marijuana under 20 grams. $20,500 bail. - Derika C. Woodard, 23, New Smyrna Beach, sale and delivery of cocaine. $20,000 bail. - Lee C. Hocker, 55, Oak Hill, sale and delivery of a controlled substance. $15,000 bail. - Roger Slade, 45, Port Orange, sale of a schedule II narcotic, $15,000 bail.

The Union City Police Department made arrests in two separate cases involving drugs over the weekend.

Christopher T. Freeman, 27, of 1003 Holly St., Hickman, Ky., and Malcolm J. Caldwell, 22, of 1201 Cedar St., Hickman, were both arrested and charged with sell/manufacture/deliver Schedule VI marijuana on Saturday. Police initially stopped Caldwell’s vehicle for a light law violation in the 300 block of West Reelfoot Avenue. The officer then received a phone call from a Fulton County, Ky., deputy stating Caldwell had had previous drug charges. The Union City Police K-9 was utilized and alerted on the vehicle. Freeman and Caldwell were removed from the vehicle and searched. A search of the vehicle yielded 9 grams of a green leafy substance, believed to be marijuana, packaged in five individual wrapped bags inside a Newport cigarette package in the glove box. In an incident Friday, Dewey Ray Wright of 1371 Highway 51 North, Union City, was charged with evading arrest, driving on a suspended license, possession of Schedule II methamphetamine and tampering with or fabricating evidence. The report at the police department states the reporting officer observed Wright driving a vehicle southbound on Hillsboro Street. The officer stated he had information that there was an active warrant for Wright’s arrest, so he followed him. Wright allegedly stopped at 1340 Hillsboro, Apartment 2, exited the vehicle and ran. The officer told Wright to stop several times while he was running through the middle and backyard of the apartment, according to the report. The officer finally caught up with Wright and got him down before arresting him, At the arrest location, officers located a small blue plastic container under a rose bush with what appeared to be methamphetamine in it. It also contained two stud earrings. A state computer check showed Wright’s driver’s license was suspended due to failure to satisfy a citation in Obion County.

Weekend drug arrests in Stuttgart

Two Stuttgart men were arrested in separate incidents over the weekend for possession of a controlled substance, while a Judsonia man was arrested for possessing an instrument of crime. A 27-year-old Stuttgart man was arrested Sunday for possession of firearms by a certain person, possession of a controlled substance and driving on suspended license. SPD Ptl. Cody Church initiated a traffic stop in the 1000 block of North Buerkle due to the vehicle having one headlight and no license plate. While Church went to his patrol car to radio dispatch with the driver’s and passenger’s license information SPD Ptl. Krysta Campbell saw the driver place a black object in back seat of the vehicle. Both the driver and passenger were taken out of the vehicle so it could be searched, and a loaded black pistol was found with one round in the chamber and two in the magazine. A small clear bag of marijuana was also found during the search. It contained one gram, according to the police report. The vehicle was impounded and the passenger was released. The driver was transported to SPD for processing. A 35-year-old Stuttgart man was arrested Friday for possession of a controlled substance. Ptl. Taylor Hopkins with the Stuttgart Police Department initiated a traffic stop on Park Avenue after he heard loud music coming from a vehicle. “As soon as the vehicle came to a stop I could see the driver leave the driver’s seat and jump in the rear seat on the driver’s side,” Hopkins said about the man that pulled into a local convenience store for the traffic stop. The man eventually told the officer he jumped in the back because he had a suspended driver’s license and “didn’t want to go to jail.” The information was verified through dispatch and the man was placed under arrest. During the search of the vehicle Hopkins recovered a small bag of marijuana from the rear floorboard on the passenger’s side of the vehicle. The passengers in the car would not admit to having the marijuana and eventually the driver admitted the drug belonged to him. A 30-year-old Judsonia man was arrested in Stuttgart Friday with possession of an instrument of crime and driving on a suspended driver’s license. Stuttgart Police Department officers were dispatched to a verbal dispute between a man and woman at Factory Connection, located on South Buerkle Street. When officers arrived they were told the suspect had left the area driving a blue Chevrolet Caprice.

An Indonesian court on Wednesday threw out an anti-drug group's legal challenge against a presidential decision to slash the jail term of Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby.

 

An Indonesian court on Wednesday threw out an anti-drug group's legal challenge against a presidential decision to slash the jail term of Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, seen here in 2008.

The state administrative court in Jakarta rejected the challenge from the National Movement Against Narcotics (GRANAT) against the Indonesian president's five-year reduction of Corby's 20-year jail term.

"The state administrative court has no right to proceed with the legal challenge by GRANAT. Clemency is a presidential prerogative protected by the Indonesian constitution," Judge Yodi Martono Wahyunadi said.

The court last month examined documents submitted by the group arguing that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's act of clemency in May was unjustified and drug traffickers posed a "dangerous threat" to the younger generation.

The group's lawyer Henry Yosodiningrat said they would appeal the decision. "Indonesia is in grief today following the court's decision. It reflects the fact that there's no serious commitment to eradicate narcotics from the country," he told reporters outside the courtroom.

Corby, who turns 35 next week, was convicted in 2005 of smuggling 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana onto the resort island of Bali.

With other regular remissions, the presidential pardon brought Corby's release date forward to September 20, 2017.

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties for drug trafficking, including life imprisonment and death.