Miss Guyana 2002 and the country’s delegate to the Miss Universe Pageant 2002 in Puerto Rico, was yesterday held in a Toronto prison following accusations of drug running.
Mia Rahaman was charged with the federal offence of “importation of a controlled substance,” after she was alleged to be carrying seven kilos of cocaine.
She pleaded not guilty
and will remain in prison until a bail hearing is set.
The cocaine, which could fetch a street value of G$1 million, was allegedly found in a false bottom and side of one of her suitcases. Small quantities were also found in cosmetics the court was told.
Mia was arrested at Pearson International Airport shortly after her 02:30 hr. arrival on Tuesday. She had travelled as a first-class passenger aboard an Air Transat flight from Guyana.
Acting Sergeant Gary Harvey of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police based at the Toronto airport, stated that the former beauty queen arrived at Terminal Three and was detained after a check of her luggage revealed the narcotics.
A reporter attached to a Canadian newspaper who also spoke with the RCMP officer said he was told that an Immigration Officer who interviewed Mia became suspicious of behaviour as she kept talking all the time.
The officer sent her for a second inspection and Customs made the discovery when her luggage was scanned.
The newspaper source explained that the RCMP is the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and that a federal charge carries a maximum penalty - life imprisonment.
However, Mia, who was charged as a Guyanese national, can as a ‘first timer’, if convicted, be sentenced to between two and five years in jail or/and face automatic deportation, the source added.
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