Woman arrested over marijuana in sneaker soles at Golden Grove prison
A 28-year-old woman, Sherifa Petersen, was arrested and charged with introducing narcotics into the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix after officers found two small bags of marijuana in the soles of a pair of sneakers she brought for an inmate. Police were sent to the prison at 1:38 p.m. on Friday, 9 December 2016.
🇻🇮 Golden Grove Correctional Facility, St. Croix · US Virgin Islands
Arrested
1
Charged
1
Agencies
Virgin Islands Police Department, Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections
A 28-year-old woman was arrested after she allegedly tried to bring marijuana
into the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix for an inmate.[1]Officers were told the woman, Sherifa Petersen, had bought a medium-sized clear
bag of clothing and shoes for an inmate.[1]
Police were sent to the prison at 1:38 p.m. on Friday, 9 December 2016, to
investigate a reported attempt to bring in narcotics.[1]A corrections officer
smelled a strong odour of marijuana from a pair of black Jordan sneakers, and
the chief corrections officer also detected it.[1]When officers pulled the
sneaker apart, two small clear plastic bags of a green leafy substance fell from
the soles.[1]
The green leafy substance tested positive for marijuana.[1]Petersen was
arrested and charged with introduction of narcotics into the prison, and was
remanded to the Golden Grove facility.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
1
Charged
1
Agencies
Virgin Islands Police Department; Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections
No weight or count for the marijuana found in the sneakers was published.
The Virgin Islands Consortium also reported this arrest, but only that page's headline and byline could be read from its capture, so its text is not quoted here.
A Daily News account seen only as a search fragment mentions a Mon Bijou residence and release on $10,000 bail; it could not be opened, so those details are not used.
A Virgin Islands News Online item covers the same arrest but credits the Virgin Islands Consortium, so it is a reprint and is not cited separately.
The incident date is Friday 9 December 2016; the sources give no separate date for the charge being filed.
No court outcome or later stage of the case was reported in the opened sources.
The result check flagged the 2026 Guyana Mazaruni prison officer report as a possible match on the shared place name Golden Grove; it is a different country, year and case and was recorded as a distinct event.
Highway military police arrested a 20-year-old driver on 11 November 2026 with 400.8 kilograms of marijuana in an Argo on SP-613 at kilometre 75.5 in Rosana, São Paulo. They valued the seizure at 1.2 million reais and took him to the Federal Police in Presidente Prudente, where he remained in custody.
Virgin Islands agents seized about $18,000 in hemp-derived products from Homegrown Bar and Grill's St. Thomas store on 29 April 2025, the retailer alleges. The licensed retailer says the warrantless seizure was uncompensated and is challenging it and the later Act 9072 surrender rule in federal court.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters Resolute and Mohawk intercepted a go-fast vessel about 14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti, on 30 April 2024, apprehending four Jamaican men and seizing 3,736 pounds (about 1,694.62 kg) of marijuana valued by the Coast Guard at more than $3.5 million. A federal jury convicted Miguel Orr and Romaine Betty in January 2026, with sentencing scheduled for 22 May 2026.
The DEA's Caribbean Division reported that Operation No Plant Left Behind eradicated almost 10,000 marijuana plants from 80 fields across St. Croix in a seven-day sweep ending on 20 June 2008, a record for the island.
