Drug trafficker jailed for ten years

Drug trafficker Edward Waddaley  was yesterday warned by Justice Alice Yorke-Soo-Hon that the time had come for him to learn the seriousness of his wicked ways, and jailed him for ten years with hard labour. Soo-Hon noted that over a ten-year period, Waddaley was given an opportunity to mend his ways but persisted in his illegal trade. In 1993,1998 and 2000, he was convicted of trafficking in drugs and ordered to pay fines. She told the convict that he had shown a flagrant disregard for the law, and now that he was 42 years old, he had become hardened in his ways.

Before passing sentence, Soo-Hon told Waddaley that she had taken into consideration all that was said in his favour by his attorney, as well as the two years he had spent in custody awaiting trial. Waddaley and 28-year-old Nisha Salazar were charged with trafficking in four kilos of marijuana at El Carmen Street, Sangre Grande, on December 4, 2003. Salazar was found not guilty by the jury in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court and was freed earlier this week.

Attorney Ulric Skerritt appeared for Salazar, while Mario Merritt and Kathy Mottley appeared for Waddaley. State prosecutors were Jeron Joseph and Alexander Prince. Waddaley did not testify, but his sister Elizabeth said when the police held her brother, he was in the yard speaking with Salazar. According to the evidence, a police party including PCs Denish Durga and Hendron Heath executed a search warrant at Waddaley’s home  at about 4.30 am on December 4, 2003. Both policemen said they found five packets of marijuana wrapped in plastic in Waddaley’s house.

They also said when they had knocked on the house to execute the warrant, both Waddaley and Salazer opened the door, but Salazar denied that, saying she was staying in a building next door with Waddaley’s two teenage children and her own child. She said she had only come to Waddaley’s home to collect maintenance for the child at the time of the police raid.