Ganja farmer gets 3 years jail

Nov 24, 2016 News

The efforts of a 55-year-old man to build a new home for his family were thwarted after police swooped down on a farm near his home and destroyed over 400 cannabis sativa (marijuana) plants, during an early morning raid.
The drug find led to the arrest of John Antonio, and his 53-year-old reputed wife Diane Daniels, both of Aruka, North West District.
The couple was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Tuesday charged for cultivating a prohibited plant.
Antonio, who was unrepresented by counsel, pleaded guilty to the charge. He was jailed for three years and fined $15,000.
Daniels pleaded not guilty and was remanded to prison until February 21, when she will appear in the Mabaruma Magistrate’s Court.
During his address to the court, Antonio admitted that he has been planting the prohibited drug.
He told the court that his reputed wife was unaware that the plants had been growing on the plot of land.
Further, he said that he resorted to farming marijuana as a means of earning cash to provide a better home for his family, since their house was destroyed by fire.
Daniels, in a loud voice, told the Magistrate that she was unaware that her husband had been planting ganja.
Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers related that on November 19, last, around 09:30hrs, a party of policemen went to the home of the couple and conducted a search on the premises in their presence.
He said that during the search police found nothing. They then went to the farm owned by the couple and conducted a search there, during which a quantity of cannabis sativa plants were found.
According to Jeffers the plants were about 400 in number and four feet in height.
Antonio and Daniels were told of the offence committed and samples of the plants were taken and photographed by ranks.
The entire farm was later destroyed by fire.

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