SHORTER SENTENCES FOR SQUEALERS

Judge's Plan to Reel in Drug 'Big Boys'

DRUG OFFENDERS who cooperate with the police and provide information
which can help nab the supplier will receive reduced sentences from
the courts, a High Court judge said yesterday in passing sentences
against two Carenage men.

Although lawyers representing Cleveland McLean, 50, and Carlton
Bernard, 52, had pleaded with Justice Mark Mohammed not to send their
clients to jail, the judge noting the seriousness and prevalence of
marijuana trafficking sentenced both men to serve two years each.

Mohammed, sitting in the Port of Spain Fifth Criminal Court, at the
Hall of Justice further discounted the sentences because the men had
admitted their guilt.

They had pleaded guilty on October 13, to the charge of being in
possession of just over four kilogrammes of marijuana and even the
Director of Public Prosecutions supported the application of a
non-custodial sentence for McLean because of the prisoner's assistance
to the police.

McLean had rescued a crew at sea and was paid for his kindness with
two blocks of marijuana on July 29, 2002.

He had intended to take the illegal drugs to the police but ended up
in a village rumshop where he related his tale. Taxi-driver Bernard
who offered to take the drunken boatman home with the illegal stash
was also arrested by police on Haig Street after a package of the drug
was found under the driver's seat.

Cpl Clifford Caesar had stopped Bernard's car along Haig Street,
Carenage and saw McLean, sitting in the front passenger seat, with a
package on his lap. Upon checking the contents, the officer found that
the package contained a quantity of marijuana. A similarly wrapped
package was found under the driver's seat. Bernard told the officer
that he was giving McLean a lift home.

State Counsel Nadia James appeared for the prosecution attorneys
Llewellyn Thompson and Keith Scotland represented the prisoners.