Man jailed for 3 years for trafficking narcotics

…tells Magistrate “de weed weight wrong”  

A man, who has been jailed for three years for trafficking in narcotics, had objected to the amount of cannabis sativa he was accused of having.
Victor Kipping of Trafalgar Village, West Coast Berbice, told Magistrate Rhondell Weaver at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court, that he was guilty of the offence but with an explanation when the trafficking in narcotics charge was read to him.
On February 7 last, at Trafalgar Village he had in his possession 345 grams of cannabis sativa (marijuana) for the purpose of trafficking.
When asked what his explanation was, Kipping told the Court that the marijuana was wet at the time it was weighed and so the weight he was being charged for was incorrect.
The Magistrate then entered a plea of not guilty and ordered that the accused be tried.
During the trial, Detective Constable Quincy Colder told the court that on the day in question, police officers acting on information went to the home of the accused at Trafalgar Village and on seeing the officers he scaled a fence and jumped into a trench with a black plastic bag in his hand. Colder said an officer also jumped in and arrested him.
Constable Travis Griffith told the court that the trench was in front of the yard that Kipping came out of. He told the court that he arrested the suspect, who had a plastic bag, in the trench.
According to the officer when the bag was opened it contained other plastic bags which were all sealed.
The leaves, stems and seeds of marijuana were in the inner bags. Griffith that the marijuana was well protected from water and it was weighed while dry.
Kipping was found guilty and sentenced to three years and fined $50,000.