Linda Todman-Huggins, 44, pleaded guilty to bribery by a public official in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, admitting that she took $2,000 from Roberto “Tico” Harrigan in exchange for helping load suitcases that were allegedly full of money onto a Venezuelan plane bound for South America.
Ms. Todman-Huggins, a customs officer who was stationed at Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Beef Island, was seen on airport surveillance footage helping to unload the suitcases from a van on the early morning of Aug. 7 and passing them to a man near the door to the tarmac, Crown Counsel Valston Graham told the court.
Later that day, Mr. Graham said, she met Mr. Harrigan near the BVI Electricity Corporation’s Long Bush headquarters, where he gave her $2,000. She gave half of that money to a member of the airport ground crew for his assistance in moving the suitcases, he said.
She told police she didn’t know what was in the suitcases, the prosecutor said.
“But it crossed her mind that it was either money or drugs,” he added.
See the Sept. 15, 2011 edition for full coverage.