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St Vincent: St Lucian fined, jailed over cocaine possession

LoopNews

October 25, 2024 1:21 PM ET

6 mins read

Senior Magistrate Colin John has dismissed as “not the most credible” the explanation given by attorney Grant Connell as to how his St Lucian-born client came to have 22 kilograms of cocaine on a boat in Bequia on September 16. 

“I don’t think someone would just throw 22 kilograms of cocaine on a boat and tell the persons to leave. That amount of cocaine is more than half a million dollars,” the magistrate said, adding “the explanation that was given to the court was not very believable.” 

John said that the sentencing guidelines suggest that the defendant, Ezra Henry aka “Will”, should receive a non-custodial sentence. 

He, however, noted that the guideline also permits the presiding judicial officer to depart from them in the interest of justice, adding that he also considered the totality principle in arriving at his sentence. 

“I think this is a very serious offence. The amount of cocaine is significant,” John said. 

“It is not a one-rock of or two spliffs of marijuana. It was 22 kilos of cocaine. We know the dangers of cocaine; we know the spill-offs of cocaine so sentencing must be reflective of society’s abhorrence to cocaine, cocaine trafficking and the ills that spill off if it.” 

He said the court was of the view that a fine and confinement should be prescribed and jailed Henry for three years for trafficking the cocaine, with the time spent on remand deducted. 

John also ordered him to pay a fine of EC$125,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) for possession of the drug within one year or spend a year in prison, consecutive to the three-year sentence. 

Henry, 49, self-employed, of Castries, pleaded guilty to charges that he had the drug in his possession with intent to supply it to another on September 16, in Bequia, and that he had it for drug trafficking. 

He was initially charged along with fellow St Lucians, Dolton “Degree” John, a 32-year-old fisherman, of Castries, and Moses “Laygay” Barbour, a 50-year-old steel bender/carpenter, of Vieux Fort. 

They had pleaded not guilty to all charges when they were arraigned on September 18. 

They were remanded into custody until Thursday when Henry pleaded guilty while the co-accused maintained their innocence. 

The three men had also pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to traffic the drug and maintained that plea on Thursday. 

After Henry was sentenced, the prosecutor, Inspector of Police Renrick Cato, withdrew the conspiracy charges against the three defendants and the drug possession and trafficking charges against John and Barbour. 

The court heard that on September 16, the Coast Guard was conducting routine patrol in Port Elizabeth Harbour when the officers saw a red pirogue travelling from Hamilton Bay towards Devil’s Table in Ocar, Bequia. 

The Coast Guard vessel used a loud hailer to signal the pirogue to stop. The officers then saw Henry throwing some items overboard and they fired a warning shot in the air, after which the pirogue stopped. 

The item that was thrown overboard was retrieved and the Coast Guard officers found it to be a black plastic bag containing a nylon sack that contained rectangular-shaped objects. 

The packages were counted in Henry’s presence and amounted to 20. He was taken to the Central Police Station in Kingstown, where the charges were laid after police conducted a video-recorded interview with him. 

In mitigation, defence counsel Connell said that Henry is a father of five, has no previous conviction and was extremely remorseful for his actions. 

The lawyer said his instructions were that Henry had engaged the services of John, a boat captain, and they came to St Vincent to drop off items for family members to be sent to Union Island. 

The lawyer said that the men cleared with the Vincentian authorities when they arrived and left. Connell told the court that someone threw the object on the boat and told them to take it back to St Lucia. 

“But on leaving, the Coast Guard intercepted the vessel. The captain, having no reason to avoid the Coast Guard, stopped and entertained their request, not aware that the passenger, Henry, had the bag and he threw it overboard,” the lawyer said. 

After identifying what he considered the mitigating and aggravating features of the case, Connell suggested a sentence of 24 months in prison. 

As regards a fine, he said the drug has a street value of EC$500,000. 

“We need the money. But, realistically, if we were to calculate what a fine should be, a construction worker from St Lucia, that would be impossible,” Connell said,” adding “if we impose the heavy fine, it would amount to a sentence”. 

But the prosecutor noted that the law allows the court to triple the value of the drug when imposing a fine. He suggested that the court fine Henry EC$250,000 for drug trafficking and EC$127,383 for possession of the drug. 

In handing down his sentence, the magistrate noted the street value of the cocaine. 

He said that aggravating of the offence was that Henry had attempted to conceal and dispose of the cocaine. 

There were no aggravating factors of the offender and mitigating was that he had no previous convictions. The court ordered that the cocaine be destroyed.