Drug convict sentenced

High Court judge Randall Worrell today sentenced drug trafficker Harbone Mackinon Griffith to seven years in prison.

However, the 49-year-old of Checker Hall, St Lucy only has 838 more days to serve in prison on that sentence.

Griffith had previously pleaded guilty in the No. 2 Supreme Court to importation, trafficking and possession of 238.3 kilogrammes or 525.36 pounds of cannabis.

Senior Crown Counsel Oliver Thomas told the court Coast Guard officials were conducting surveillance about ten nautical miles off Batt’s Rock, St Michael on August 30, 2018 when they received information and began heading in the direction of Heron Bay, St James. On the way they spotted a white vessel off Holetown with registration number J6-1464 and bearing the name Power Struggle. Three men were spotted on board the boat, which began making evasive manoeuvres on seeing the Coast Guard vessel.

The boat was intercepted about 15 nautical miles off Heron Bay with the occupants including Griffith. The bags containing the cannabis along with the detainees were taken to the Coast Guard base and subsequently to the Oistins Police Station.

When Griffith addressed Justice Worrell last week he claimed he was forced to join an enterprise to import 525.36 pounds of marijuana into Barbados because the lives of his two daughters were being threatened.

Griffith said then: “I would like to apologise to the court for my misbehavoiur in society. My two little girls’ lives were being threatened through an incident me and a guy had years ago. So, he decided to hit back at me by getting back at my two little children so I could do a deed for him.

In handing down the sentence via a Zoom hearing this morning Justice Worrell told the convict that he was at an age where “he should have known better” and while he was not the captain of the vessel he went and “prepared the way” for the drugs to be trafficked into the country.

“This is a very serious offence . . . The importation and trafficking of such quantities can only be met with a custodial sentence. . . as a deterrent . . . to try to stop these things from happening,” Justice Worrell stated.

The judge then imposed a starting prison sentence of seven years on Griffith. However, he explained that the mitigating features of the case outweighed the aggravating factors “slightly” and as such he reduced the sentence by a year, leaving Griffith with six years.

The drug trafficker, who was represented by attorney-at-law Angella Mithcell-Gittens, was then credited with a one third discount for his guilty plea and the 622 days he had already spent on remand in prison. That left him with 838 more days left to serve on the trafficking charge.

He was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the charges of importation and possession.