Two charged after cocaine, ganja seized on Mandela Highway
Police charged two Westmoreland men with possession, dealing and trafficking after FNID officers found cocaine and ganja in their car on Mandela Highway on March 4. The ganja quantity was not specified, so no cannabis weight is recorded, and the men are due before the St Catherine Parish Court on March 13.
🇯🇲 Mandela Highway, St Andrew · Jamaica
·
Arrested
2
Charged
2
Agency
Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID)
Police charged two Westmoreland men who were held with alleged cocaine and ganja
during a traffic stop along Mandela Highway.[1]The accused are Donald Baugh,
a farmer from New Works, and Lenroy Ferguson, a tiler from the Water Works
district.[2]They are charged with possession of cocaine and ganja, dealing in
cocaine and ganja, and trafficking cocaine and ganja.[1]They are scheduled to
appear before the St Catherine Parish Court on Friday, March 13.[2]
About 5:25 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, FNID personnel intercepted a Toyota motor
car travelling along Mandela Highway, driven by Ferguson with Baugh as
passenger.[1]A search of the vehicle found approximately 1.2 kilogrammes of
cocaine and an unspecified quantity of loose ganja.[2]Police gave an
estimated combined street value of $720,000 for the cocaine and ganja together.[2]
FNID acting director Deputy Superintendent Sheldon Coulson said police have
stepped up monitoring at the borders and across the island to capture drug
traffickers.[2]Coulson said police are going after criminal networks
profiting from the movement of illegal drugs and that there is no safe haven for
traffickers.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
2
Charged
2
Agency
Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID)
Agency type
Police, Anti-narcotics agency
Activity
Possession, Sale, Trafficking
Setting
Vehicle
Charges
possession of cocaine and ganja; dealing in cocaine and ganja; trafficking cocaine and ganja
No separate weight was published for the ganja, only approximately 1.2 kilogrammes of cocaine plus an unspecified quantity of loose ganja, so no kg_seized is recorded.
The published $720,000 is a combined street value for the cocaine and ganja together and cannot be attributed to cannabis, so no value is recorded.
No plea or court outcome was reported; the men were due to appear on March 13 and any later hearing or sentence is not covered.
The St James Parish Court fined 76-year-old Washington Hylton $17,000 after eight ounces of ganja were found in his luggage at Sangster International Airport as he prepared to leave for London. He pleaded guilty to possession and attempting to export the cannabis.
Jamaican police arrested two men and a woman during a six-hour series of raids in Highlight View and Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, seizing marijuana worth about $500,000 and what they called an assortment of offensive weapons. The operation targeted suspected extortionists and gang members in the illicit drugs-for-guns trade.
District Constable Robert Campbell was charged with dealing in ganja and bringing prohibited articles into the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston. Supervisors caught him after a parcel fell from his pocket in the barrack room, and a later search of his knapsack found more suspected ganja, suspected tobacco, cash and other items.
According to Harm Reduction International, court cases for possessing or smoking cannabis fell by more than 90 per cent after the reform of April 2015, and criminal cases referred to the courts in 2016 were 25 per cent fewer than in 2014. In 2016 the government nearly doubled its budget for the national HIV response, from 2.83 to 5.17 million US dollars.
