San Juan man fined $60,000 in 18-year-old marijuana case

A 37-year-old San Juan man has been fined $60,000 for trafficking 11 kilogrammes of marijuana 18 years ago.

Ganesh Lochan, a river control worker with the Ministry of Works and Transport, pleaded guilty on March 15, and was sentenced on Monday by Justice Gail Gonzales.

Gonzales said while the finding of the drugs, worth $77,000 at the time he was arrested in 2003, in a watercourse suggested to her that it was part of the international drug trade, she said it appeared Lochan was a “low-ranking player” and the operation was “not too sophisticated."

Lochan was arrested on February 20, 2003, by police and soldiers in a tributary of the Caroni River. He had just got out of a small boat and was holding a crocus bag. When he saw the police, he threw it into the river. The police retrieved the bag, opened it and found 11 rectangular blocks wrapped in red masking tape. The packets were cut open and found to contain dried compressed marijuana.

In his plea of mitigation, Lochan’s attorney Daniel Khan said his client was the father of a 16-year-old boy with a degenerative muscular disease which was terminal. He lives with his 70-year-old mother, who has her own health issues.

He also suggested that at the time, Lochan was influenced by relatives and others, but had since “extricated himself” from those alliances.

If he was jailed, the State would not only have to maintain him, but also his son, who may also have to be put in the State’s care because of his condition.

Gonzales said the court was entitled to look at Lochan’s youth and immaturity at the time – he was 19 when he was arrested.

She also said Lochan was likely to lose his job, and with no education, skill or trade which would make his prospects of getting a job when released bleak.

“If he reoffends, then he cannot blame the system. It is for him to make good the chance he has been given,” she said.

Gonzales also said having acknowledged that he must pay for the crime, and since 18 years had passed, while he may have reached the threshold for incarceration, that didn't mean he should be incarcerated.

But she sent a message to other would-be offenders that they should not expect to come to court with a series of unfortunate evidence and get off lightly on a charge of drug trafficking.

“The court sentences persons, not offences, and the court has to do what is right and justice,” she said, adding that Lochan’s case was the exception rather than the rule.

In considering the amount of the fine, she also said it would be pointless to impose a fine he could not pay, although the law provides for fines, on conviction, of up to ten times the street value of the marijuana.

She said the court looked at his monthly salary of $4,400 and said a fine of $60,000 would cause him hardship, advising him he was free to take up “legal and legitimate” side jobs to pay it.

Lochan was ordered to pay $2,000 a month for the next 15 months, starting from April 1. If he fails to pay, he will be sentenced to 30 years’ hard labour.

In January, Lochan unsuccessfully filed an application to have the court stay the indictment on the ground that his continued prosecution amounted to an abuse of process because of the length of time that had passed.

He first went on trial in 2009, but it resulted in a hung jury and a retrial was ordered. Between 2010 and 2019, the matter was called several times before various judges but did not proceed, since the notes from the first trial were outstanding and when they were said to be ready, they were incomplete.

In a ruling in January, Gonzales said no reason had been given why the notes of evidence remained unavailable.

In his application, Lochan also said his witness who gave evidence at the first trial was now dead and the scene of the incident had changed so drastically over the last 18 years that a jury would be unable to see that the police could not have seen him in the way they said they did.

It was also pointed out that sometime in 2017, the police had destroyed the exhibit of the 11 packets of marijuana and he could not get a fair trial. He also said the ordeal had caused him great hardship and anxiety over the years.

In her ruling against the application to stay the indictment, Gonzales said there was no evidence of the claims advanced by Lochan which would result in unfairness to him at a trial.

The State was represented by prosecutor Norma Peters.