CITY Magistrate Dylan Bess on Monday imposed a five-year prison sentence on Terry Van Sertima for cultivating cannabis (marijuana).Van Sertima was also charged with having a 12-gauge shotgun, a 9mm pistol, and a Smith & Wesson pistol in his possession, besides several rounds of matching ammunition for the weapons, without being the holder of a firearm licence.

Van Sertima was apprehended at his Yarrowkabra, Soesdyke/Linden Highway farm on March 18, after a party of policemen acting on a ‘tip-off’ caught him as he was tending more than 4,000 of the prohibited plants on approximately four acres of cultivated land.

The farmer then took the ranks to his nearby campsite, where the cache of arms and ammunition was discovered.

The accused was handed a sentence of three years’ imprisonment and fined $15,000 for cultivating the plants; and another sentence of two years’ imprisonment and a fine of $50,000 for each gun and ammo charge he faced. These sentences will run consecutively.