Friday, December 11 2009

A MT HOPE man was fined $325,000 for possession and attempting to traffic 580 grammes of heroin. WASA employee Brent McLeod, of Park Avenue, Mt Hope made his last appearance yesterday before Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ 4A Court for a trafficking trial which has been ongoing for the past five years.

It was alleged that on June 11, 2004, McLeod was held by officers from the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Bureau, as well as Customs officials, at Piarco International Airport, attempting to board BWIA Flight 900 en route to London, when he was spotted and questioned on his “nervous behaviour.”

It was later learnt that McLeod ingested 127 pellets containing the illegal drug in an attempt to traffic the substance to the United Kingdom.

He was arrested and taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where the pellets were removed.

At the close of the trial yesterday, the State, represented by police prosecutor Sgt Alva Gordon, successfully countered mitigating submissions by McLeod’s defence attorney Selwyn Ross who asked for leniency saying his client had no prior or pending matters and had proven himself to be a person of good character.

Sgt Gordon asked the court to take into consideration the type of drug involved in the case and the seriousness of the method used to transport it. He asked the court to act against McLeod to deter others who were “so like minded.”

After some deliberation, Cardenas-Ragoonanan fined McLeod $25,000 or three years hard labour, for possession of a dangerous drug.

He was expected to pay $10,000 forthwith and given six months to pay the balance. For attempting to traffic a prohibited good, McLeod was fined $300,000 or five years hard labour. He was given six months to pay this fine.