[www.inewsguyana.com] – A 25 – year – old mother of four busted last year with a quantity of cocaine stashed in the roof of her toilet was on Monday, January 26 sentenced to three years imprisonment by Magistrate Judy Latchman on a drug trafficking charge.
Ocia Leung, a Cosmetologist of Albouys Street, Albouystown was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.
During her first appearance before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry last June, Leung had pleaded not guilty to the charge, which stated that on June 14, 2014 at Albouys Street, Albouystown she had 4.3 grammes of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking.
It is the Prosecution’s case that acting on information received, about 08:20 hours that day a party of police ranks from the Narcotics Branch of the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) Headquarters ventured to Leung’s residence where they contacted her and her reputed husband, John Rowidge.
The police said that the ranks searched the premises and the drug was found in the toilet’s sealing. The couple was arrested and taken to the CID Headquarters where the drug was weighed.
They were both charged with possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking. During the course of the trial, however, the man was set free since the Court found that there was no evidence linking him to the drug.
The woman had reportedly confessed to the police that it belonged to her. The case was prosecuted by Inspector Shellon Daniels while Leung was defended by Attorney-at-Law Ronald Burch-Smith.
Daniels called several witnesses during the trial which culminated with Leung being found guilty as charged.
Today, during mitigation Burch-Smith asked the Court to refrain from imposing a custodial sentence on Leung since she has four minor children; ages three, five and six-year olds as well as 22-days-old baby.
The Prosecutor argued that those were not special reasons for such since special reasons should relate to the offence not the offender.
Notwithstanding his application, the mother of four was sent to jail and ordered to pay the fine.
A foreign ship with with a foreign crew was caught with US$800m in cocaine. It is allowed to leave Guyana after supposedly paying a US$12,000 fine. No one is jailed!
A mother of four is caught with a quantity of cocaine, but she gets three years imprisonment? It is not the law that is an ass!