The Owia man who carried 12 grams of cocaine with him after being summoned to the police station in 2023 has been fined EC$16,000 over 5,539 grams (12.2lbs) of the drug he had in Kingstown on Feb. 6
Hollis Young aka Pargy, whose address is also given as Questelles, had used the name Jamal Young in 2023 when he was charged for the cocaine in Owia.
He appeared before the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown on Monday and pleaded guilty to charges that on Feb. 6, at Kingstown, he had in his possession 5,539 grams of cocaine with intent to supply, and that he had the drug for the purpose of drug trafficking.
Presenting the facts, the prosecutor, Inspector of Police Renrick Cato, said that on Feb. 6, acting on information, Sergeant Huggins headed a party of Narcotics Unit officers to the Grenadines Wharf in Kingstown.
On arrival at the wharf, the officers received further information and went to Little Tokyo in Kingstown.
About 7:15 p.m., acting on information, they went near Massy Store in Stoney Ground, at which point they were joined by officers from the Special Services Unit (SSU).
The police were searching for a suspect in short dark-coloured pants, a dark long-sleeve jersey and an orange cap.
Later that same evening, the SSU officer reported to Huggins that a male fitting that description had escaped from them.
While the person was running, he dropped a red shopping bag, the contents of which were handed over to Huggins for further investigation.
The police did not locate the suspect. Huggins took the bag and its contents to the Narcotics Base, where it was found to contain seven rectangular objects.
Huggins cut open the seven packages in the presence of two other officers and found five of them to contain a whitish substance resembling cocaine. The other two were found to contain wood.
The officer weighed the five packages containing the whitish substance,They amounted to 5,539 grams.
On Feb. 7, Huggins continued the investigation and obtained CCTV footage from the Police Control Centre, which showed four males, one of whose dress code matched the suspect, at the scene at Stoney Ground.
Police ascertained the man to be Young, who the officer later arrested.
When cautioned, Young told police, “That ah the red bag and dem ah the seven thing way been in it.”
In mitigation, Connell told the court that his client is a fisherman who was pursuing CXC studies.
He asked that a fine be imposed and that Young be given six months to pay.
Young told the court that he has a small boat and does spearfishing.
He, however, said he works with another fisherman who owns a seine and is paid between EC$1,000 and EC$2,000 a week, depending on whether they sell fish to trawlers.
The court ordered Young to pay a fine of EC$6,000 for possession of the drug and EC$10,000 for possession for drug trafficking.
After the sentence, Connell asked that the police return Young’s phone to him.
However, Cato said the phone was the subject of an investigation and police would return it to the defendant soon.
He pointed out to the court that Young had surrendered the phone to the police and had given them permission to search it.
Connell, however, said that Young has on the phone information related to his studies.
The court ordered that the phone be returned to Young by Feb. 24.