His unsuccessful attempt to smuggle 297.55 kilogrammes of cannabis into Barbados has netted a 33-year-old man an eight-year jail sentence at HMP Dodds.
However, Junior Michael Ricardo Mascoll, of No. 4 Piper’s Avenue, Bayville, St Michael has just over four years remaining to serve on that sentence having spent the remainder on remand.
Mascoll was found about five nautical miles off Barbados, on June 19, 2004, at Alleyne’s Bay in St James.
Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Blackman, who was the prosecutor in the case, said officials of the Royal Barbados Police Force and Barbados Coast Guard were on a joint operation when they encountered Mascoll’s vessel, which was intercepted and towed with several packages containing the vegetable matter.
Earlier this month, Mascoll had apologized and asked for leniency before Madam Justice Jacqueline Cornelius in the No 5 Supreme Court.
“There is nothing I can say . . . that can change my past but if you give me a chance I can surely change my future.
“Ma’am, I am very sorry for the things I have done, . . . for the people that I have hurt . . . . I have learnt from my mistakes . . . and I accept my faults, . . . But since I have been incarcerated I was given an opportunity to learn . . . . I was also given a chance to learn tailoring and I can say that I truly enjoyed it,” the accused, who was self-represented, said as he read from a prepared speech.
In handing down the sentence today Justice Cornelius stated that Mascoll’s crime merited a custodial sentence, as it was a “very substantial” quantity of drugs.
“No doubt this illegal shipment was intended to generate illegal profit by the players involved and would have contributed to the downward spiral of rampant drug addiction and consequent rise in the delinquent behaviour of offenders in this country,” the judge told Mascoll who has five previous convictions for possession of cannabis, theft and wounding.
The sentenced was imposed for trafficking the drugs, while he was convicted, reprimanded and discharged for posession and importation.
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