A barber was yesterday sentenced to almost five years in jail and fined over $36 million after being found guilty of drug trafficking.
Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan handed down the sentence to Bertrum Garnett, 35, who was caught trafficking 12.294 kilogrammes of cocaine on June 26th, 2015.
Garnett, who was an outgoing passenger at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri was discovered by police ranks to be acting in a suspicious manner. When he was stopped and searched, the drugs were found in his suitcase.
According to the facts presented by the prosecution during the trial, Garnett was arrested and cautioned. It was while under caution, he admitted to having knowledge of the drugs and that he was promised US$10,000 by a person who had bought the plane ticket for him.
While reading her judgement, the Chief Magistrate told the court that the prosecution’s evidence supported the charge. The court found that he indeed trafficked the narcotics based on his confession in the caution statement and, therefore, found him guilty as charged.
Garnett was fined $36,882,000, three times the street value of the drugs. The court also took into consideration that the defendant also spent some amount of time in prison and thus sentenced him to four years and ten months.
