Pubdate: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 Source: Bermuda Sun (Bermuda) Copyright: 2005 Bermuda Sun Contact: http://www.bermudasun.bm/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3865 IMPRISONED: FIRST OFFENDERS FALL FOUL OF NEW DRUGS LAW Three Drug Dealers Sentenced To 16 Years In First Case Under Tougher Regime The hard new drug regime claimed its first traffickers on Monday when a local man and two Americans all went to jail for a total of 16 years. The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2005, which passed into law in August, now provides for maximum penalties of 10 years in jail and fines of half a million dollars or three times the value of the drugs seized. What's more, it's retroactive -- something that sent Steven Javon Evans to jail for six years even though he committed his offences before the new law went into effect. Mr. Evans, 23, of Court Street, had admitted two charges of possessing $18,930 worth of heroin and `crack' cocaine at his apartment on March 14 with intent to supply. He also admitted possessing 0.11 of a gram of cannabis, and possessing scissors, sandwich bags and bag ties as equipment for preparing drugs for misuse. The heroin and crack weighed a total of 9.76 grams -- more than a gram of each is legally deemed intended for supply. The heroin was 41 and 42 per cent pure, the crack 83 per cent. Crown Counsel Graveney Bannister told the court that narcotics officers raided Mr. Evans's apartment in the evening as he tried to dispose of the drugs in front of his pregnant girlfriend. Mr. Evans also admitted possessing 13 rocks of `crack' cocaine on April 28 in an Increased Penalty Zone (IPZ) on Court Street with intent to supply them. They weighed 2.69 grams and were valued at $6'. On that occasion, said Mr. Bannister, he was within 300 metres of the `Kids Kollege' pre-school when police found the drug in his waistband. "You caught me," Mr. Evans reportedly said. "Another charge -- again." Defence barrister Richard Hector, arguing for a sentence of no more than five years, cited his client's "recipe for disaster" -- imprisonment, never holding a regular job and living on Court Street - -- as well as his infant son. "He's a known, petty drug dealer," Mr. Warner countered in reference to Mr. Evans's two previous similar convictions from 2004 when he was given a suspended prison sentence. The magistrate sent the expressionless man to prison for six years in total, and ordered $95 seized from him to be forfeited to the Crown. At the same time, Mr. Warner imprisoned Jose Manuel Diaz, 34, and his cousin Emmanuel Velazquez, 28, of Philadelphia for five years for importing $151,125 worth of `crack' cocaine on Remembrance Day and possessing it with intent to supply it to a local contact for money. Mr. Bannister reported that the pair had arrived on a flight from Philadelphia when ion scans detected cocaine traces on them. Hospital X-rays confirmed the presence of "foreign objects" in their stomachs. Mr. Diaz later expelled 61 pellets of the drug, and Mr. Velazquez 17. The drugs weighed 465.5 grams and 124.7 grams respectively and Mr. Bannister asked for jail terms of six years for each man. Barrister Larry Scott, for both, suggested sentences of two and one-half to three years to mirror what he argued were the likely sentences in the Supreme Court previously. "That's old legislation," Mr. Warner observed. "I'm thinking about seven years. This is a classic case of drugs imported for gain." As the two sat hunched forward in the dock Mr. Warner sentenced them to five years in jail for the importation with no separate penalty for the second charge. He included their time spent in custody since their arrest. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin