A retired politician wept as he was given a 'lenient' 10-year jail term yesterday after being driven to crime by the economic crisis.
Tomas Charfauros, 58, a former Republican senator on Guam, was caught trying to smuggle drugs out of Hong Kong to get money to support his eight children and 14 grandchildren after the end of a 30-year political career, the Court of First Instance heard.
Deputy Judge Gerard Muttrie said he took into account the American's powerful expression of remorse.
Charfauros had told his lawyer: 'I am glad I have been caught. If I had not been caught, this evil . . . might have got into the hands of my grandchildren.' Kumar Ramanathan, defending, said Charfauros had also been a musician playing the hotel circuit in Guam but that the downturn had led to a drop in tourists and he was unable to find regular work.
The final straw came in December when Typhoon Paka swept the island, damaging the family's home.
'He was driven by the sheer desperation of the economic situation . . . He was not able to see through the foolhardy aspects of that particular enterprise,' Mr Ramanathan said.
