A Guyanese man, who was caught with 21 pounds of cocaine in an X-box game and packets of biscuits during a stopover in Jamaica, was sentenced to a five-year jail term on the island on Thursday.
Ivan Noel, 42, an electronic trader of a Georgetown address, was sentenced after a previous guilty plea for possession of cocaine, dealing in cocaine, and importing cocaine, the Jamaica Observer reported.
Noel was also fined J$1.5million during sentencing in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court in Jamaica.
He was fined J$500,000 on each of the charges with an alternative of five years in prison.
However, the sentences are to run concurrently to the mandatory five-year sentence if the fines are not paid.
Noel was also charged for conspiracy to import cocaine but pleaded not guilty to the offence and no evidence was offered.
According to the Observer, before the sentence was passed, Noel’s lawyer, Jacqueline Cummings, told the court that he fell on hard times and was recently diagnosed with cancer.
She said that he had to undergo a J$30,000 operation, failing which he would be in dire circumstances.
Cummings added that Noel had problems supporting his daughter, who is in school, and as a result agreed to do a carriage for man whom he met in Curacao. As a result, she pleaded with the judge not to impose a custodial sentence on him, so that he could return to Guyana to receive treatment.
But Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey said that she was not impressed by Noel’s medical condition or his problems with his daughter, since he knew the situation before he agreed to courier the drugs.
The magistrate also expressed doubt about her ability to sentence Noel, saying that in light of the amount of the cocaine he needed to go before the Circuit Court where they had more powers. “Five years for 21 pounds of cocaine is a joke,” she was quoted as saying before handing down the sentence.
Noel was caught at the Norman Manley International Airport on June 11, when he arrived on flight from Curacao.
He was destined for Panama. Police said he was held with US$1,900 and told them that he was given US$5,000 to deliver the drugs.
