23-year-old Dominican mother of two Sugeidy Castillo was jailed for 14 and a half years today after she was convicted by a jury yesterday of havingbrought drugs to Malta. 

Sentence was delivered by Justice Lawrence Quintano after a three-day trial.

Sugeidy Castillo, who gave birth to a child in prison, was found guilty by seven votes to two of conspiring to import a kilogram of heroin and being in possession of the drug. She was also found unanimously guilty of importing the substance. It took the jurors five hours to reach their verdict yesterday.

The drugs were found in a hidden compartment in her luggage on July 13, 2009, after she arrived on a flight from Brussels. On Monday she told jurors she had come to Malta to prostitute herself after finding herself in a desperate financial situation.

She said she did not know there were drugs hidden in the bag and neither that she was pregnant, which she found out while in custody awaiting trial.

In submissions on punishment, defence lawyer Edward Gatt described the case as "heart breaking" because of the circumstances the woman found herself in: being forced to prostitute herself but ending up as a drug courier.

"We should not forget that these couriers are people too. These people find themselves caught up because of deep personal and social problems", he said.

The prosecuting lawyer from the Attorney General's Office, Philip Galea Farrugia, said he agreed couriers were vulnerable people but the fact of the matter was that drugs were being brought into the country through such people. He said that as regards punishment, the court should not treat anyone any differently.