Drug mule prison guard gets 64 months

MONTREAL, June 20 (UPI) -- Alice English, a 55-year-old Montreal prison guard convicted of smuggling drugs, pornography and phones to inmates, was sentenced to 64 months in prison.

English, a mother of four and grandmother of 12, was sentenced Thursday by Judge Patrick Healy, who found her guilty May 27 of four counts of drug trafficking and one charge of conspiracy to traffic, The Gazette newspaper in Montreal reported.

English was a 16-year veteran of prison work when she was arrested at the Montreal Detention Center, July 7, 2005, about 6:30 a.m., the report said. Investigators alleged she had left 110 rocks of crack cocaine, marijuana, hashish, pornographic magazines and five cell phones in coffee cans in a garbage can accessible to inmates.

The judge accepted the sentence agreed upon by defense and prosecutors, but said "it lies plainly at the lenient end of a reasonable range for this offense and this offender," the newspaper said.

It's expected that English, as a former prison guard, will require protective custody, the report said.