The Provincial People’s Court of Santiago de Cuba sentenced a 55-year-old man to nine years in prison for trafficking and selling cannabis sativa, known in Cuba as marihuana.[1] The ruling was issued by the court’s chamber for crimes against state security, sitting in its criminal function, and state media called the sentence exemplary.[1] The oral and public trial, reported by the state broadcaster Canal Caribe, was filed as case 64 of 2025 and ended with nine years in prison plus accessory sanctions.[1] The accessory penalties were loss of rights, a ban on leaving Cuba and the confiscation of the seized drug and of cash from the alleged sales.[1]
On 26 September 2024 authorities intercepted the accused at the Carretera del Pilar at its corner with Martí street in Palma Soriano municipality.[1] Officers took from him a backpack holding a nylon package with 230 grams of marihuana.[1] The investigation found that he bought the drug in Palma Soriano and carried it to his home in Santiago de Cuba to sell it there.[1] Tests found that the Court had proven he was stopped on 26 September 2024 at Carretera del Pilar at Martí in Palma Soriano while carrying 230 grams of cannabis sativa in a backpack.[2]
The offence was classified under article 235.1(a) of Cuba’s Penal Code, which sets four to ten years in prison for acts involving illegal drugs or substances of similar effect.[1] CiberCuba reported that the court also ordered loss of civil rights, a ban on leaving the country and the forfeiture of the money and drug seized.[2] The television report presented the ruling as exemplary, in line with the government’s zero-tolerance drug policy during the Third National Exercise of prevention and confrontation of crime, corruption and social indiscipline.[2] Canal Caribe said the purpose of the sentence was to show the gravity of the offence and to prevent acts that break the law and affect public safety.[1] A second Cubanet article published nine days later describes the same case as a nine-year prison term for the 55-year-old under cause 64 of 2025 in the state-security chamber of the Santiago de Cuba court.[3] The trial was held under Cuba’s national drug-enforcement exercise, which Cubanet describes as a campaign criticised for its punitive approach.[1]
