Men ordered to pay thousands in fines for weed

Three men were, on Monday, slapped with hefty fines at the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown for possession of marijuana in a trial that ended last Friday, Jan. 5.

Thoar Jack, 37, of Byera, was fined EC$5,500 for possession of 3,448 grammes (7.6lbs) of cannabis with intent to supply at Rabacca.

He was arrested at the same time as Ochocko Hamilton, 31, of New Adelphi, when police found them with the drugs in motor vehicle PP261, which was travelling in the direction of Georgetown.

Hamilton pleaded guilty and was fined EC$6,500 for possession of 3,906 grammes (8.61 lbs) of the drug, with intent to supply.

Meanwhile, Kelson John, 44, of Canouan, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to supply at Grand Bay, Canouan last Friday.

The two counts related to possession of 4,968 grammes (10.95 lbs) and 23 grammes.

Jack told the court that he had the drugs because he has his mother and his 2-year-old child to provide for.

He told the court that he is a tile layer but has been unemployed since Christmas 2016.

“Me just try to mek a risk but me look like me fail,” Jack told Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias and asked her to impose a fine and grant him some time to pay.

Meanwhile, Hamilton told the court that he had the drugs because he had some bills to pay and had to get some money to send his children back to school.

He also said that he was also going to use the money from the sale of the marijuana to help out his “old queen” (mother), who lives in Diamonds.

In the case of the Canouan resident, police found the drug in four taped packages in a cardboard box in John’s kitchen when they executed a search warrant at his home.

The smaller amount was found in a calabash.

John told the court that he had sent some money to someone and the person had said they would send something to him.

When asked, he told the court that he knew that it was marijuana that was to be sent to him, but said two of the four packages were for someone in Union Island.

In handing down the sentences, the chief magistrate noted that none of the men had antecedents and that they had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

She, however, noted that possession of marijuana is still a crime in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and that the quantities in each case were significant.