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Yolanda Fonseca Melgarejo, 60, a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Peru, was nabbed after flying in from Lima in March 2019.
She had seven kilos of coke "concealed within wrapped chocolate candy in her luggage," Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
Malgarejo took a deal from the government rather than risk trial, pleading guilty this past June to a single count of importing controlled substances. She'll have to serve out the sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton, sitting in Newark, also sentenced Melgarejo to two years of supervised release.
Honig credited credited special agents of the New Jersey Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations and officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s New York Field Office with the investigations.
Securing the plea was Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Agnew of her Organized Crime and Gangs Unit in Newark.
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