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British Woman Caught With 43 Kilograms of Cocaine at O’Hare Gets Six-Year Sentence

A plea deal closed a case that had veered into an unusual deportation dispute raised by prosecutors during pretrial supervision.

Overview

  • Kimberly Hall, 29, pleaded guilty on Sept. 8 at Chicago’s Leighton Criminal Court and received a six-year term under a negotiated agreement.
  • Customs officers found 21 bundles weighing about 43 kilograms with an estimated street value of $6.2 million, and court records say she admitted agreeing to deliver them to Manchester.
  • She was first placed on electronic monitoring after surrendering her passport, then jailed when prosecutors said she was booked on a deportation flight and alleged she sought to use ICE to leave the country.
  • Her lawyer has asserted she acted under duress, while tabloid interviews detailed her claims of threats; those accounts were raised in mitigation but remain disputed publicly.
  • Because the offense is served at 50% time and she has credit for about a year, roughly two years of custody remain before a possible return to the U.K.