Father with kids to feed turn mule- carrying drugs to sell in hardship of Covid Pandemic!
“Magistrate Stephanie Gillett slapped him with mandatory fine of$10,000 in default 3 years in jail”
by Anita Nembhard- Flowers
Belize City, Tues. Dec. 1, 2020
Tonight a Belize City father who finds himself unemployed and struggling to care for himself and his family got caught carrying weed home to sell.
30-year-old Kendall Sanchez, a father and bread- winner for his family is tonight in debt to the court in the sum of $10,000 which was slapped upon him this morning when he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
Sanchez, was unrepresented and appeared before Magistrate, Stephanie Gillett in Court #4.
Sanchez wasted no time and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and tried to convince the court he was not selling the weed but only using it for his own cumsumption.
But Magistrate Gillett a woman with years if experience did not buy his story.
Sanchez first said that with the hardship he finds himself in, being unemployed and children to feed, he had to do what he had to do.
When asked what he meant by that, he tried to explain that he was only looking out for his family.
He later admitted in court to being a mule and carrying the drugs home to sell to provide for his family. He admitted he was wrong but didnt know what else to do.
The unemployed of #7004 Antelope Street Extension was busted by police yesterday, Monday, November 30, 2020 in possession of 75 grams of cannabis which was inside his left back pants pocket.
In court, Sanchez was read a single charge of possession of a control drugs with intent to supply to another person or persons for the purpose of drug trafficking.
Drug trafficking carries a penalty of a mandatory fine of $10,000, plus a prison term of 3 years and can be both fine and confinement dependent on previous convictions.
But because this is Sanchez’s first conviction, he was ordered to pay a fine and not confined especially since he pleaded guilty and saved the court time in a trial.
Magistrate Gillett gave Sanchez until June 30, 2021, a six months period to pay the hefty fine in default, 3 years imprisonment.