10 Kilos of Coke Yields 4 Years in Jail

BOSTON — A 43-year-old Newport Beach woman convicted of carrying more than 10 kilos of cocaine from California to Boston’s Logan International Airport last year was sentenced Friday to four years in prison.

Constance L. Clayton was distraught and sobbing throughout her sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Walker said authorities became suspicious of Clayton when she bought a one-way ticket to Boston at Ontario Airport 20 minutes before departure and paid the more than $500 fare in cash.

Customs agents arrested her when she arrived in Boston on March 10, 1992, carrying a suitcase containing high-grade cocaine.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys concurred that Clayton acted only as a “mule” for drug dealers, and that this was her first offense.

Clayton asked Judge William Young for time to see her family, especially her grandchildren, who had been born since she was arrested. But Young admonished her that the drugs she had been carrying destroy other people’s families.