Rhiannon Ingle
The family of the 29-year-old British woman who dodged a 60-year prison sentence after getting caught smuggling £15 million of cocaine has spoken out.
Last summer (18 August 2024), homeland security officials at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport discovered that Teeside native Kim Hall's two suitcases were packed with 43kg of the Class A substance as she transferred flights en route from Mexico to Britain.
The beautician was charged with the manufacture or delivery of cocaine, which can be categorised as a Class X Felony in Illinois, depending on the amount of drugs involved, and can carry a jail sentence of up to 60 years.
Fortunately for Hall, who said she was forced by two British men to take the suitcases, which she believed were filled with $250,000 (£185,744) in cash, a Chicago judge announced on Monday (8 September) that she had been given just a fraction of the possible sentence, at just six years in prison in return for a guilty plea.
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And that's not all, as there is also a possibility that Hall will be able to return home in two years after taking into account time already served, plus early release for good behaviour, which typically happens halfway through a prison sentence.
Speaking to The Sun last year, Hall claimed that she was coerced into bringing two suitcases home from a holiday in Cancun by two British men.
"One of them dragged me off the bed by my hair and held a handgun to my head," she recalled. "He said, 'I'll f*cking shoot you.' It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my life."
She continued: "There's no way that I would knowingly transport drugs. I’m not a drug trafficker.
"When the full realisation of what it all meant hit me I cried and cried, I was pleading with them to let me call my mum and dad. I was hysterical and could hardly breathe. I was in a daze, thinking, is this really happening to me?
"There's no way that I would knowingly transport drugs in any way, shape or form."
The prosecution in the case accepted Hall's claims.
Hall's family are understandably overjoyed at the massively reduced sentence with her father, 60-year-old scaffolder John, telling The Sun: "We are over the moon.
"We feel we are the luckiest people on the planet - it’s better than winning any lottery."
John carried on: "She is not a criminal and never has been.
"We are still a bit concerned as to which prison she is going to serve her sentence in but regardless of that at least she only has to endure two years now and not 60."
He explained that this week's sentencing was a 'huge relief' for the whole family.
"Her release is two years away but we can start planning - I don’t mean any sort of big party but planning to get her life back on track and that will take some time because of everything she has suffered," John added.