By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAN caught with $600 worth of marijuana must pay more than twice that amount to avoid spending four months in prison.
Police arrested Ricardo Brown after they found 10 ounces of Indian hemp in his home on October 31.
He admitted the offence during his arraignment before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.
The prosecution said that around 10.45am on the morning in question, a team of officers went to Brown’s residence armed with a search warrant.
The court was told that when they arrived, they met him and some other men sitting on a dog cage. The prosecution said officers then showed Brown their warrant and informed him that he and his house would be searched for dangerous drugs and firearms. Although they did not find any contraband on Brown, when they deployed a dog from their K-9 unit, he made indications towards a western bedroom in the accused’s house.
Officers found two plastic bags and a vacuum package which both contained marijuana, underneath a white bucket in the room. Brown was subsequently arrested and taken to the Drug Enforcement Unit, where he told police the drugs were his and claimed that he had a smoking problem.
After Brown accepted the facts of the prosecution’s case, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt accepted his guilty plea and fined him $1,500 or four months in prison.
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