Archive for December 18th, 2011
Caymanian escapes Jamaican jail in ganja export
(CNS): A local man has narrowly escaped a year’s imprisonment in Jamaica after a magistrate suspended the prison time imposed for the man’s part in efforts to export more than 109 pounds of ganja and a quantity of hash oil from Jamaica to the Cayman Islands. The Jamaican Gleaner reported that 29-year-old Matthew Brown, who works as a plumber in the Cayman Islands, and Arthur Garvey, a wholesale jeweller in Westmoreland, were found at Brown's home with 109 pounds of ganja, five pounds of hash oil, a compressor, jack, transparent plastic wrap and a scale. Garvey, under caution, said the contraband was destined for the Cayman Islands, while Brown said he was at the location to smoke ganja.
The men pleaded guilty and were fined a total of J$363,000 and given a year in jail but Brown was spared from the mandatory prison sentence after his lawyer, Dionne Meylor-Reid, made an impassioned plea for leniency. Resident Magistrate Collymore Gordon set aside the jail time he had imposed on Brown and his co-accused, 52-year-old Jamaican Arthur Garvey, in the Savanna-la-Mar Resident Magistrate's Court, Westmoreland.
The magistrate told the men that if they were convicted of any offences within the next three years, they would have to serve the prison term. No removal or deportation order was made for Brown.