COCAINE CHARGES DISMISSED

Charges against a Mexican woman who was arrested at Vancouver airport
with eight bottles of cocaine were dismissed because it couldn't be
proved she knew was carrying illegal drugs.

Judge Ronald Fratkin was told in Richmond Provincial Court that
Sandra Estela Canedo Acosta arrived in Vancouver on Nov. 29, 2005 and
aroused the suspicions of immigration officials.

Canedo Acosta said she planned to be in Vancouver until Jan. 9, 2006
to check out English-language schools for her children.

But she only had $911 US and 178 Mexican pesos -- which wasn't enough
to pay for a stay at a Holiday Inn, where she had a reservation.

Immigration officers considered her to be a "non-genuine traveller"
and sent her for a secondary inspection.

Officers found two bottles of shampoo in her carry-on bag and,
according to the court transcript, they noticed "the liquid seemed to
lack viscosity."

They opened a bottle and it "smelled like acetone." The shampoo was
tested and found to be cocaine, as was the other shampoo, a bottle of
Listerine mouthwash, a bottle of nail polish remover, and four other
bottles in her luggage.

An RCMP drug expert testified the 1.33 kilos of cocaine had a street
value of about $106,000 or kilo-level sale value between $33,000 and
$39,000.

Canedo Acosta denied she knew anything about the cocaine.

She said she had been given the bottles by a friend, Francisco
Gonzales of Cuernavaca, Mexico, who had paid for her ticket, her stay
in Vancouver and promised her $1,000 if she delivered the bottles to
a blonde woman at the hotel.

"I am not satisfied that on all of the evidence the Crown has
established that the accused has direct knowledge [of the crime],"
ruled the judge.

Canedo Acosta didn't testify at the trial.