A 19-year-old French national was sentenced to 17 years in prison by a Mauritius court for drug trafficking.

The case dates back to March 2012 when Deborah Dangla was caught transporting 6,942 tablets each containing 8 mg of Subutex drug, valued at 366,000 U.S. dollars in her bag while travelling to Mauritius.

At the time of her arrest at the airport, she was aged 18 years. She was later charged at the Court of Assizes for importing Subutex (Bupremorphine).

She pleaded guilty of the charges during the hearing of the case which was presided over by Justice Benjamin Marie-Joseph. The latter concluded that Dangla was a drug trafficker, given that the value of her drugs was over 30,000 dollars.

The judge rejected the argument of the defence that their client was a victim of an organized network who use young people to traffic the drugs, and recalled that the young girl had been informed about the plan to transport the drugs from Paris to Mauritius at least three months before her arrest in Mauritius.

However, before the judge made the ruling, he took into account the accused person's age and the fact that she pleaded guilty during the hearing of the case.

Besides the 17 years in prison, the young French girl was also given a fine of about 3,200 dollars.

Dangla is the second French national to be sentenced to prison in Mauritius over drug trafficking since the beginning of this year. On March 7, Tomas Carlos Pedraza, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for importation of Subutex. Endi

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