NIGERIAN national Michael Solomon, who had swallowed 16 pellets of cocaine after being busted with more than 91 grammes of the illicit substance at his Sophia home, was on Thursday sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and fined $745,470 on two counts of drug trafficking.The 32-year-old defendant of Lot 142 ‘E’ Field Sophia pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking when he appeared before city magistrate Ann McLennan.

The court heard that on September 9, at ‘E’ Field Sophia, East Coast Demerara, Solomon had in his possession 91.5 grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Police ranks visited the premises after a ‘tip-off’ and discovered the illicit drug concealed under a wall facing in his home.

Solomon told the lawmen that he had also swallowed some cocaine pellets. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital and was admitted under guard from September 9-15. There he excreted 16 pellets, amounting to some 245.6 grammes of cocaine.

The Nigerian national told the court that he was visiting his wife and 9-year-old daughter (both Guyanese nationals) when he met another man from Nigeria, told him about his unfavourable financial situation and said he was looking for a job. That man assisted him to get a job with his boss.

“The man took me to his boss and introduced me to him. The boss drives a fancy car and lives in a big house; and when I went to him, he requested to see my passport and identification card, and asked if I had ever swallowed before, and I said no,” Solomon said in his strange Nigerian accent.

He told the court that the ‘boss’ took him to the immigration office and had him apply for an extension of his visit, thus he was given a year’s extension. The boss booked him into a hotel in the city and told him that he (Solomon) would be “flying out in the morning”.

The father of one explained that the drug was given to him in different shapes of pellets, each said to weigh over 20 grammes. After he had swallowed the pills, the ‘boss’ called a taxi to take me to the airport.

“In the taxi I started to get cold feet, for in my mind what I was doing was wrong; so I took the taxi back home, and during the course of the next day I started to feel nauseous and to get terrible abdominal pains. I confided in my mother-in-law who is a nurse, after which the police came to search the house and took me to the hospital”.

The prosecutor Corporal Deniro Jones, explained that Solomon had assisted the police with their investigation, and they already have in custody the other persons who were involved in the enterprise.

“A victim of circumstances” was how Solomon was described by his lawyer, Mr. Moti Singh. Singh urged the court to consider the mitigating factors — that the accused had pleaded guilty; was married to a Guyanese national, and has a daughter; and he urged the court to be merciful to his client.

Solomon was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment on each charge, and was fined a total of $745,470 for having the drug in his possession and for trafficking.
(Clestine Juan)