Crime Brooklyn Boro

Brooklyn judge puts alleged drug smuggler on short leash after failed drug test

July 6, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Tahisha Dubois allegedly smuggled over two kilos of illegal drugs from the Dominican Republic to New York into John F. Kennedy Airport. Eagle file photo by Paul Frangipane.
Tahisha Dubois allegedly smuggled over two kilos of illegal drugs from the Dominican Republic to New York into John F. Kennedy Airport. Eagle file photo by Paul Frangipane.
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A woman who allegedly smuggled more than two kilos of illegal drugs through John F. Kennedy Airport failed a court-mandated drug test for cocaine so a Brooklyn judge put her on a short leash to monitor her drug problem.

Prosecutors alleged that Tahisha Dubois was traveling with her child from Santiago, Dominican Republic on June 10, 2016, when she arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport with over two kilos (4.4 pounds) of illegal drugs hidden in health drinks and spices bottles in her luggage.

While out on bail, Dubois was booted out of an inpatient drug program for insurance issues and failed a drug test for cocaine on June 1, 2017, prosecutors said in court.

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“You need to overcome this addiction some way,” said Judge Margo Brodie, who didn’t think jail was an appropriate next step.

Dubois said that she fell back into drug use after she was discharged from the treatment program because of the stress of not being able to see her children due to Child Protective Services restrictions.

“One minute I can see them, one minute I can’t,” Dubois said of her children.

Dubois starts an outpatient program on Monday at Innovative Health Systems in White Plains, New York, five days a week for three to six months.

While she passed a drug test on June 8, 2017, prosecutors noted that cocaine only stays in a person’s system for three days.

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched two of Dubois’ bags at the airport they found bottles of Ensure, a health drink, that were heavy and filled with brown powder. When tested, the powdery substance came up positive with traces of cocaine.

In other bottles of spices and powders in Dubois’ bags officers found more drugs, totaling up to about a kilo of cocaine (2.2 pounds) and 1.5 kilos (3.3 pounds) of heroin.

Brodie requested Dubois come back next month if she continued to fail her drug tests, but the sympathetic judge said she hoped not to see Dubois back often.

“For your children, if not for you, you need to do this,” Brodie said to Dubois. “They don’t deserve this.”


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