‘Unpaid’ employee jailed eight months for 70 grams of ganja

Jun 29, 2018 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

A woman who admitted to trafficking 70 grams of marijuana was yesterday sentenced to eight months imprisonment by a City Magistrate.
Fifty-three-year-old Sandra Russell, a vendor of Omai Landing, Essequibo, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Russell pleaded guilty with explanation to the charge, which alleged that on June 25 at Omai Landing, she had in her possession 70 grams of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Jailed: Sandra Russell

The woman in her explanation stated “I have been working with some people for the past two years and they haven’t been paying me, so I decided to sell ganja to provide for myself.”
Facts presented by Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield stated that on June 25 last, at about 01:00 hours, a party of police officers from Mahdia Police Station were on patrol duty at Omai Landing.
The court heard that a search was carried out at a camp where Russell occupied and it was there that a quantity of leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be narcotics were found in a black plastic bag concealed in her bedroom wall.
She was told of the offence committed to which she admitted. The woman was then arrested and escorted to the Mahdia Police Station, and later charged.
The Magistrate after listening to the prosecutor’s submission sentenced the woman to eight months imprisonment along with a $135,000 fine.
While the Magistrate’s ruling is unclear, the Laws of Guyana stipulate that any person found in possession of over five grams of marijuana is liable to face a fine together with the minimum of three years or the maximum of five years imprisonment.