A court in French Polynesia has jailed ten people for dealing in the drug methamphetamine, in the first such case of its kind in the territory.
The newspaper La Depeche de Tahiti reports the correctional tribunal in the capital Papeete yesterday sentenced the ten drug dealers to prison terms ranging from 18 months to five years.
Investigators found one man bought the drug in the United States and smuggled it in to French Polynesia seven times last year.
The man was sentenced to five years imprisonment and his wife was given three years in jail.
She profited from selling on the drug, and even encouraged her own children to deal it.
Defence lawyers described the sentences as disproportionate to the crime.
But the presiding judge said the punishments would serve as examples to deter others.
