THE role of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP), James Bond, in the recent decision of a magistrate to grant a confessed drug trafficker, Leonard Bacchus, a suspended sentence, is being questioned. 

Sparendaam Magistrate, Mr. Alex Moore granted the suspended sentence of five years to Bacchus and he was ordered by the court to pay a fine of $2.5M by June 30, 2015.

Bacchus admitted to trafficking 67 kilogrammes of cocaine. Bacchus was arrested along with his son and wife in 2011 when the police raided their home following a tip-off that the family were in possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. A police raid unearthed $300M worth of narcotics, which was concealed in the false bottoms of kunds (Hindu religious urns). The drug was found in Bacchus’s Block 20 Enmore/Haslington New Scheme, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home.
Since his arrest three years ago, Bacchus had changed his initial plea from guilty to not guilty. Upon changing his plea, APNU’s Bond was retained as his legal representative.
The ruling has since attracted much attention and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Hack, has indicated that she intends to appeal Moore’s ruling.
The last legal mind to comment on the case was no less than the Head of the Guyana Bar Association, Ronald Burch-Smith, who stated that the ruling is “highly unusual,” given the circumstances.
“It is highly unusual. I don’t know what he heard or what the situation is exactly, but [in] the normal course of things, this would not happen,” Burch-Smith has been quoted as saying, adding that the offence carries a mandatory jail sentence, as well as a fine.
The Bar Association head has also expressed support for the DPP’s decision to appeal the ruling.
Several other professionals in the legal fraternity have commented to the Guyana Chronicle on the ruling and contended that “something is amiss” or “nefarious” to say the least.
Under the Narcotics Act, if found guilty or pleading guilty, the penalty for the offender is a fine of not less than $30,000 or three times the market price of the narcotics, together with a jail term of no less than three years and no more than five years.
APNU’S POSITION
Bond’s defence of the confessed drug trafficker has been up for greater scrutiny given his party’s position on the issue of narco-trafficking and the rate of crime in Guyana.
APNU Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger, was slammed by fellow politicians for terming Guyana a “narco-state”, during April’s budget debate.
According to him, Guyana is now closer than it has ever been to becoming a “narco-state,” based on the revelations of Guyana’s narcotic linkages and the Government’s “inability” to enforce drug- trafficking measures.
He, with the support of his party, has called for several Commissions of Inquiry (CoIs) to address several crime-related matters.
Despite the negative commentary from the Opposition camp, relative to ongoing efforts to address narco-trafficking and the rate of crime, even the usually critical USA State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) in its 2014 report on Guyana states: “As a matter of policy, the Government of Guyana does not encourage or facilitate the illicit production or distribution of narcotics or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions.”
The report further describes Guyana an active partner in the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), a security partnership between the United States and Caribbean nations that seeks to substantially reduce illicit trafficking, advance public safety and citizen security, and promote social justice.
Additionally, Guyana is party to the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters; the Organisation of American States (OAS) Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (OAS/CICAD); an active participant of the CICAD Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), which monitors and reports on member states’ compliance with CICADS’s Hemispheric Drug Strategy and its related Plan of Action.