A 38-year-old woman from Ledegem has been convicted of drug trafficking together with three others. The woman enlisted her 17-year-old daughter to deliver drugs and received the most severe sentence of twenty months suspended prison sentence. “Do you realize the situation in which you have placed your children?” the judge asked sternly.
The 38-year-old mother of two had a normal life and worked as a hairdresser, until she fell back into the hospital due to back problems and fell into bankruptcy. She also had bipolar disorder and struggled with a drinking and drug problem. At the trial, the prosecutor accused her of simply wanting to benefit from the flakka hype. “I have to do something to survive,” the woman said during an interrogation.
On July 30 last year, she and her then partner from Wevelgem were caught with flakka and speed in the car. He also sold drugs and was in turn sentenced to fifteen months suspended and an 8,000 euro fine, of which 800 euros was effective. During a search, drugs were found in various places in the family home, including in the laundry basket and in a photo frame. There were eleven cannabis plants in the garden.
Children involved
The woman sometimes called in her then underage daughter to make the deliveries, something that the judge took seriously. “Your son was also very young, do you realize that because of you the children also became involved?”
“I wanted to keep giving them everything they wanted,” the woman responded. “They didn’t notice much of it. It’s not like I said ‘let’s go sell flakka’. Now I have stopped doing it mainly for my children.”
After the couple of main suspects broke up, they each continued using and small-scale dealing with their new partner. These two other defendants were also known to the court and will receive nine months in prison and an effective fine of 1,000 euros, respectively, and nine months’ deferral and an 8,000 euro fine, of which 800 will be effective. (jf)
