A 63-year-old grandmother is behind bars after she was accused of smuggling $500,000 worth of cocaine into the Metro Airport of Detroit. Defense argues that she was used as a drug mule but the woman is said to have a long criminal history.
The woman was identified as Chery Cheatham. According to People, the woman started to act strange after arriving in Detroit from Las Vegas. She reportedly acted like she did not own the luggage and closely inspected the tags of other bags at the baggage claim. She also allegedly paused at one point before leaving the airport to make sure that no one was on her tail. Officials arrested Cheatham after they followed her from the airport to a nearby hotel. Cheatham is now facing charges of one count of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
The vehicle of Cheatham was also searched by officials and they were able to recover around 17 kilograms of cocaine insider her suitcases. The grandmother reportedly has serious health and mental problems as per her lawyer. Her lawyer argued that she should be in the hospital and not in jail.
Cheatham has been denied bond by a magistrate judge when she appeared in federal court earlier this week. Since 1986, Cheatham was involved in other crimes such as theft, shoplifting and possessing drugs. She also failed to appear in court in some of her hearings. Aside from the run-ins with the law, Cheatham was sentenced to six and a half years in prison due to theft conviction, which she was able to serve, Consumnes Connection reported.
It was advised that the 63-year-old woman be held in jail and denied bail due to her history of not going to her scheduled court appearances. Magistrate Judge David R. Grand also scolded Cheatham saying that people make bad choice when they are younger and they are expected to learn to make better decisions as they grow older.
Grand added, "Unfortunately, in your situations, that doesn't seem to have happened. Here we are in 2016, and you're caught with this substantial amount of narcotics." Meanwhile, her family has not yet commented on the matter.
