Judge wanted a $2M fine

The other accused, Gabriel Deosaran, was sentenced to ten years in prison. They were found guilty on October 4 of being in possession of 484 kilos of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking; possession of a nine-millimetre Barreta pistol, and ten rounds of nine-millimetre ammunition on August 6, 1999, at Huggins Street, Tacarigua.

Holdip said he took into consideration that both Bissessar and Deosaran were first time offenders and that their attorneys wanted the court to be lenient. Turning to Bissessar, the judge pointed out that 16 testimonials were submitted to the court by people in his community — Tacarigua.

"You could be described as a community leader,’’ the judge told the accused before a packed court. Holdip said the legislation provides for life imprisonment for trafficking in drugs.

"Common sense tells me this man is a big pusher, he is big. He had 900 pounds of marijuana to the extent that it took a pick-up truck to convey the marijuana to the court."

The judge said the marijuana was packed in the apartment in Tacarigua from the floor to the ceiling. The court, he added, was looking at the quantity and how high Bissessar was in the commercial trade.

"If you were not warehousing it for someone, and if the marijuana was yours, you are at the higher echelons of the drug trade. There is always the back-up, the gun and the ammunition. As the saying goes, one has to back up one’s turf. Unfortunately, I do not have the power to add other sentences."

Holdip said to get at a drug trafficker, one must hurt him financially. He told the accused that he carried on a charade. He lived a type of life when he presented himself to the community in a particular manner, but in the same breath, carried on this nefarious activity in the background. "If the law allowed me, I would have given you a pecuniary fine. It would have been nice to look at you this morning and say you will pay a $2 million fine and give you six months to pay it. But the law does not allow it," the judge added. Holdip said Deosaran could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"You went down there. You knew what was going on, the action that was taking place, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could not have been there and not know there was marijuana there."

Earlier, Bissessar’s attorney Pamela Elder SC pleaded for mercy, saying her client has been in a stable common-law relationship for the past seven years and has four young children. She admitted that these offences must carry a custodial sentence, but asked the court to be lenient.

Kenneth Munroe-Brown, who represented Deosaran, said his client was not well, and that a doctor had been seeing him for the past 15 years. He said Deosaran suffers from chronic back pain and weakness in the lower limbs, and suffers from a shortness of breath.

Munroe-Brown was of the opinion that Deosaran’s condition would deteriorate if he was sent to prison. "A custodial sentence will amount to a death sentence. He was found in shark waters, but he was no shark, maybe a cascadura."