Ex-con jailed for trafficking near children’s home

Winston Mohammed was sent to jail for two years for trafficking marijuana within 500 metres of the Lady Hochoy Home in Gasparillo. The Home provides for the care and training of mentally challenged children. Mohammed, 42, who has 54 previous convictions, and his friend Andre Lackhan, 25, pleaded guilty when they appeared before Magistrate Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds.

Lackhan, a first-time offender, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine forthwith or serve nine months in prison. The magistrate, presiding in the San Fernando court, said she only took into consideration eight of Mohammed’s convictions, since the others occurred prior to the ten-year statutory period. “I can disabuse my mind from the other five and half pages of convictions,” she said.

The men were arrested by Cpl Ramroop, PC Dailey and PC Rahim on May 2. The police saw them seated in a white Nissan B 13 parked outside the home on Harmony Hall Road South, Gasparillo. Lakhan was in the driver’s seat and Mohammed in the front passenger seat.

The police found six foil packets of marijuana, weighing 13.7 grammes, in the car. The men said the marijuana was for their personal use. Lakhan’s lawyer, Annalee Girwar, said her client followed bad company, while Mohammed begged for leniency.