1 year jail for selling ganja

Dinesh Ramcharan, 24, will spend the next 12 months in jail for selling marijuana. He was found with 247 grammes of the illegal drug on Friday.

Ramcharan of Aladdin Street, Bonne Aventure, Gasparillo, pleaded guilty to possession yesterday morning before senior magistrate Jo-Anne Connor in the San Fernando magistrates’ court.

Police prosecutor Cleyon Seedan told Connor that at about 5.50 am, police went to Ramcharan’s home with a search warrant. When confronted, he replied, “Officer, I have some drugs by the toilet.”

Seedan said along with the marijuana in a black plastic pouch, police seized a scale, transparent plastic bags, five $20 and 14 $100 bills in a brown envelope. When they cautioned Ramcharan, the prosecutor said, he replied, “Yes, that is my drugs. My wife and children don’t know.”

PC Clevon George laid the charge. Attorney Indira Binda pleaded for leniency, saying Ramcharan ecently had to find a new home because of a family squabble over land. He took his wife and children, she said, to a house where there were no facilities, even running water. He sells marijuana to make ends meet, she said.

But Connor told Ramcharan he has three convictions for marijuana and on each occasion he had been fined.

“On three occasions he benefited from fines. I’m afraid that on this occasion, there will be no fine. He’ll do 12 months.”

A female relative of Ramcharan sitting in the court began to weep.