(Trinidad Express) Eight years’ imprisonment was the sentence imposed on two former employees at the Foreign Affairs Ministry after they were found guilty, last month, of trafficking cocaine to New York, Canada and London two decades ago.
Imposing the sentences, yesterday, on 51-year-old Micah Smith and Kurt Alexis, 47, at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain, was Justice Gail Gonzales.
Smith, of Laventille Extension Road, Morvant, and Alexis, of San Fernando, were found guilty by a nine-member jury, on October 19, and remanded into prison custody pending sentence.
At yesterday’s hearing, Justice Gonzales said they both breached the trust of their employer and their acts would have resulted in aspersions being cast on other innocent employees at the ministry.
The judge said the criminal acts were well planned and executed, and “embarrassed this country on an international level”.
“This was international drug trafficking,” she said.
Smith was found guilty on two counts, while Alexis was found guilty on one.
They were also both jointly charged alongside another person with conspiracy to traffic cocaine, but, at the start of the trial in September, they were all discharged on that count after the prosecution said it would be presenting no evidence.
Justice Gonzales pointed out during sentencing that the maximum sentence that could have been imposed was a fine of $100,000, one that was triple the street value of the drugs, or a term of imprisonment of 25 years.
She noted that both convicts maintained they were innocent and, therefore, did not express any remorse. They had also each asked for non-custodial sentences to be imposed.
However, the judge said she believed time behind bars was the more suitable sentence for the crimes committed.
She noted that, in her view, the appropriate starting point in the sentencing exercise was ten years’ imprisonment. But given their previously clean record and their ability to not find themselves in trouble with the law since being charged, they were entitled to a two-year deduction, leaving them with eight years to serve from the time they were found guilty.
Attorneys Delicia Helwig-Robertson and Ayanna Norville appeared on behalf of Smith, while attorney Colin Selvon appeared for Alexis.
