Carenage duo to know fate Monday

TWO Carenage men, who pleaded guilty to narcotics trafficking charges yesterday, will know their fate on Monday when they will be sentenced by Justice Mark Mohammed. Cleveland McLean, 51, and Carlton Bernard, 52, are charged with the possession of 2.462 kilos of compressed marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The illegal narcotic has an estimated street value of $20,000. The two men were reportedly in a car on Haig Street in Carenage on July 29, 2002, when the vehicle, driven by Bernard, was stopped by Cpl Clifford Caesar and PC Lezama. The officers were on mobile patrol on Western Main Road, Carenage. McLean, who was seated in the front passenger seat, was carrying one package of the illegal narcotic on his lap, and on searching the vehicle, the officers found another package under the driver’s seat. The men were arrested and taken to the Carenage Police Station, where they were subsequently charged.

In his mitigation plea, Bernard’s attorney, Keith Scotland, requested that the judge give his client a non-custodial sentence, since the packages did not belong to Bernard. He was merely giving McLean a lift home, the attorney said. In addition, Scotland said, the father of two had strong communal ties and a strong family background and had no previous convictions. He insisted that no useful purpose could be served by sending his client to prison. McLean’s attorney, Llewellyn Thomas, asked the judge to consider the fact that his client had a clean record and that he may lose his job at National Fisheries as a result of the situation. The men had no previous convictions. Mohammed, however, asked of the defence attorneys how he should treat with the fact of the prevalence of the offence for which the men had been charged. In response, Scotland said that while the court had to look at the prevalence, each case had to be looked at individually. “Distinguish this case from the others,” the attorney said.