State to pay $60,000 each to 4 Venezuelan drug-bust convicts

FOUR Venezuelan men serving life sentences for the $700 million Monos Island drug bust have successfully challenged the failure of the prison authorities to hold four-year sentence reviews.

They will each be compensated for the breaches of their constitutional rights. Justice Westmin James made the order on July 22.

The four – Alonzo Valera, 40, Cesar Pereira Rodriguez, 40, Freddie Garcia Munoz, 39, and Darwin Gonzalez Morerno – will receive $60,000 each in vindicatory damages.

Along with Trinidadians Victor Sylvester and Shaheed Ali, they were convicted of the 2005 multi-million-dollar drug bust in March 2008. Then-High Court judge Alice Yorke-Soo Hon sentenced them to life, not to be released in less than 30 years, along with 20-year concurrent sentences for possession of seven illegal guns and ammunition.

In 2014, the six lost their appeals, but the Appeal Court varied their sentences to life not to be released before 27 years and three months, and seven years and three months for the firearm charges.

In October 2023, attorneys for the four filed constitutional and judicial review claims seeking several declarations, since there had been no four-year reviews for 16 years of their detention.

Their attorneys Keron Ramkhalwhan, Shalini Sankar and Annessia Gunness argued the prison authorities were duty-bound to hold reviews until the completion of their minimum sentence and failing to do so denied the four any opportunity for early release. The attorneys also argued that the reviews and updated reports on their conduct during incarceration were essential for consideration of a presidential pardon.

While the State conceded that the delay in holding views was in breach of the men’s rights to equality before the law and protection of the law, it said they were not deprived of their liberty without due process of law, since they were serving lawful sentences and had appealed their conviction and sentences, so the failure to do a review did not validate or invalidate a sentence.

In his ruling, James declared the failure to hold the reviews was unconstitutional and amounted to breaches of their rights to protection of the law and not to be deprived of procedural provisions that give effect to their rights.

In deciding on damages, James said, "I do not believe that declarations are sufficient in these circumstances.

“The prison authorities have infringed the rights of the claimants for 16 years. There is a breaking-down of the institutions, and reliance on the excuse of a backlog of reviews and overwhelmed staff is not acceptable. The prison authorities must address the issue or seek legislative change.

"I believe an award of damages would help vindicate the breach and assist in conveying the disapproval of the court of these actions of the prison authorities and encourage change.”

He also ordered the prison authorities to review the men’s sentences within four months of his order.

“This is, in the court’s view, the appropriate restitution to remedy the wrong done to the claimants. The claimants are entitled to the review and so their redress is for them to have the reviews done before the expiration of their minimum period of incarceration.”

The four were not successful in persuading James to have their cases sent to the Criminal Assizes to review their sentences.

James said not every infringement of a right would cause an entire sentence to be vacated.

“It depends on the circumstances as to hold otherwise would mean that any infraction of a person's constitutional right, no matter how slight, would render any sentence to be vacated and a prisoner released.”

He also said since their minimum term of 27 years had not yet elapsed, it would not be appropriate, at this stage, to order the High Court to review their sentences.

At the end of their trial in the High Court, Yorke-Soo Hon criticised the police’s investigation into the drug bust, which was one of the largest in Trinidad and Tobago’s history.

"The main house was never searched and the owners never investigated...the ownership of the drugs was never established and the employers of these men were not found. All these unanswered questions facilitated the escape of the big fish," she said at the time of sentencing the two Trinidadians and four Venezuelans.

The men were held after police raided a house at Passy Bay, Monos Island, around 3 am on August 23, 2005.

The State was represented by Shalini Singh Nicol Yee Fung, Avion Romain, Radha Sookdeo, Vincent Jardine and Anala Mohan in the civil claim before James.