Canadian national Johal Magnet, who was nabbed at the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport (CJIA) with a quantity of cocaine concealed in the false bottom of his suitcase, was yesterday sentenced to a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to narcotics trafficking.
Magnet, 41, who was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine, admitted that on June 4, at the CJIA, he had 2.615 kilogrammes of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.
After the unrepresented man pleaded guilty, Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, who heard the case at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, inquired from him if he was sure that he wanted to maintain his guilty plea. She explained to him that the offence carries a minimum term of imprisonment for three years and a maximum of five years. Magnet, however, was firm about maintaining his plea.
“I am guilty,” he said, when asked by the court what he had to say in relation to the commission of the offence. In his address to the court, he also said that what he did was wrong and he did not want to waste the court’s time.
Begging for leniency, Magnet said that he has “dependents” back home in Canada, including six children and a sick mother.
The man also noted that he fully cooperated with the police in their investigations—a claim which was confirmed by Prosecutor Stephen Telford.
Further, when asked by the court whether he had any previous convictions or pending matters before courts of law in Guyana or anywhere else, the defendant said no.
Presenting the prosecution’s facts, which were not disputed by Magnet, Telford said that the cocaine was found concealed in false walls at the bottom of the man’s suitcase when a secondary search was conducted on the luggage by narcotic-ranks after it had passed through the baggage scanner.
He said that the defendant was then taken into police custody and the illegal substance was weighed in his presence and amounted to that mentioned in the charge.
Telford told the court that Magnet was promised Canadian $10,000 if he travelled to Guyana and exported the drug back to Canada.
The court heard that the defendant arrived in Guyana on May 29 and checked in at a city hotel, where he stayed until he was ready to return to Canada on June 4. At the time of his arrest, he was an outgoing passenger on Caribbean Airlines flight 606, destined for Canada.
In handing down sentence, the court took both aggravating and mitigating circumstances into account.
Noting the aggravating circumstances, the magistrate said that at his age, Magnet is taken to know the consequences of his actions. She noted also the seriousness and prevalence of the offence, the sophisticated methods of concealment used and the message needed to be sent to potential offenders.
Meanwhile, regarding the mitigating circumstances, the magistrate noted that he pleaded guilty at the first given opportunity, saving the court time in otherwise having to conduct a trial. The court considered also that he expressed remorse for his actions.
As a result, she settled on the three-year sentence and the fine.
