Ordered to pay millions in fines

FOLLOWING their guilty pleas, two men were sentenced to prison terms on Friday for separate charges of drug trafficking. Magistrate Sunil Scarce sentenced Leonard Caleb, a 37-year-old resident of Amelia’s Ward in Linden, Region 10, to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $11,286,000.

In December 2023, he was charged and appeared before Magistrate Scarce at the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrates’ Courts, where he pleaded not guilty.
However, in March, he opted to change his not guilty plea to guilty.

A press release from the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) stated that, on November 30, 2023, its officers were carrying out an operation in Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD) close to a well-known mall, when they stopped a car driven by Caleb that had the licence plate PAE 6311.

After the car was searched, a salt bag with large packages inside that included a lot of leaves, seeds, and stems that subsequently tested positive for cannabis was found.
As a result, Caleb was taken into custody and escorted to the CANU headquarters with the drugs.

The drug, according to CANU, weighed over 12.54 kilogrammes (or nearly 27.6 pounds) and had a street value of about $4 million.

Meanwhile, Oneal Deleon was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $4,777,200. He presented himself to Magistrate Alisha George at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court and admitted to trafficking 5.308 kilogrammes of marijuana.

Furthermore, Bryan Edwards admitted to a similar offense on Friday during his appearance before Chief Magistrate (ag) Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus. He admitted his guilt for possessing 53.480 kilograms of cannabis with the intention to traffic.

Edwards was sent to jail until his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for May 17.