" Bingo addiction leads to crime !"

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A bingo-crazed granny faces up to 12 years in prison for trafficking in marijuana to finance her gambling habit. Leticia Villareal Garcia, 61, of Douglas, Ariz., was busted outside Bisbee last year when cops discovered 214 pounds of marijuana hidden in the trunk of her car. Garcia was convicted of drug trafficking Thursday. Garcia said she played bingo to supplement her only other regular income, a meager $275 monthly welfare check. But authorities suspected her real problem was her addiction - to bingo. Garcia frequently took her chances with bingo cards in Douglas and in Tucson, a two-hour drive away. "People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run," prosecutor Doyle Johnstun said in her closing argument. "The underlying issue is that she's got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this." Garcia's defense called a series of witnesses to attest to her honesty, but one of the jurors told the Douglas Daily Dispatch that just about all the character witnesses had met Garcia in bingo parlors. The juror, an experienced bingo player, said the panel was suspicious of her bingo binges and the size of some of her jackpots. "Those of us who have experience gambling know that it takes money to win big like that," the juror said. Garcia said she had been tricked into carrying the pot, which was valued between $80,000 and $160,000. She will be sentenced Dec. 18.