Teen tells court 'soldier' gave him drugs

An 18-year-old charged with possession of 18 rounds of ammunition and a quantity of cocaine yesterday told a Princes Town magistrate that a “soldier” had given him the drugs to hold.

The magistrate later learned that the soldier the teen was referring to was merely one of his friends.

“Sir, a soldier just give me something to hold in my hands and tell me to keep it for him and he was coming back. I took it and put it in my pocket. I did not know it had drugs in it until after the police opened the bag,” Seth Brown of Princes Town told senior magistrate Rae Roopchan in the Rio Claro Magistrates' Court.

The magistrate asked the teenager, “Are you saying a member of the TT regiment gave you drugs to hold?”

Brown said, “No, sir not, a soldier as in an army man. I mean a partner.”
The magistrate told the teen he needed to be precise in his choice of words.
Prosecutor Sgt Mohammed told the court on May 12 at around 6 pm Brown was walking along the Petit Café Road in Princes Town when, on seeing a police car, he began to run.

Police chased him. Brown was a held and searched, the court heard 1.3gramms of cocaine was found in his pants pocket.

He was arrested and taken to the Princes Town police station, where he was questioned and charged in connection with a magazine and 18 rounds of ammunition in another matter. The drugs, magazine, and ammunition were produced to the magistrate yesterday.

On the charge of possession of cocaine, Brown was fined $1,500 or in default will serve three months in jail. On the charge on the illegal weapons, he was granted $150,000 bail to be approved by a clerk of the peace.