Jury deliberations set to begin for elderly woman, daughter accused of trafficking drugs

On Sept. 21, Mary Anne Lafferty was convicted of eightcounts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. Vitaline Lafferty was acquitted of the same charges.

A 12-person jury is scheduled to begindeliberations Friday in the case of two elderly women accused of trafficking large amounts of drugs in 2016.

Mary Anne Lafferty, 58, and her mother Vitaline Lafferty, 79, are each facing eight countsofpossessingmarijuana, cocaine,MDMAand codeinefor the purpose of trafficking.

RCMP confiscated 5.4 kilograms of marijuana, 1.7 kilograms of cocaine, roughly three ounces of MDMA and five litres of cough syrup from a car the women were driving at a checkstop near Fort Providence in 2016.

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On Thursday, both defendants presented their closing arguments in front of N.W.T Supreme Court Justice Shannon Smallwood.

Mary Anne's attorney, Thomas Boyd, told the courthe believes his client should be acquitted due to alack of evidence. He said Mary Anne lived a simple life in 2016, which included caring for her grandchildren.

He noted that she received $65,000 in a residential school fund andtherefore did not have a financial motive to pick up drugs. Mary Anne told the court earlier in the trial that she did not receive any money to travel to Indian Cabins, where she picked up thepackages that were later found to contain drugs.

Vitaline's lawyer, Charles Davison, told the jury his client had no idea she would be heading to Northern Alberta until the morning before she was arrested. He saidVitaline was told by her daughter they were going to a funeral in Fort Resolution.

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Davison said his client was oblivious to the point where she did not ask Mary Anne questionsabout the trip.

In court yesterday, the Crown presented text messages between convicted drug kingpin ToddDubeand Mary Anne, senthours before she andher mother were arrested.

These were among the phone calls and messages police had intercepted between multiplesuspects in an RCMP operation known as Green Manalishi.

Crown prosecutor Duane Praught doubled-down on the Crown's position that both Lafferty women knew exactly what they were doing.

During his closing statements,Praught asked the jury to usecommon sense and said a transaction was made between Mary Anne and the man who dropped off the drugs.

"Drug kingpins don't give $100,000 to dupes and just hope for the best," he said.