MONTEGO BAY, St James - Senior Resident Magistrate for St James, Winsome Henry, has commented on what she terms is a "new trend" for ganja smugglers - that of trying to take out smaller portions of ganja to the Netherlands Antilles Island Curaçao, instead of the large quantities that was previously the norm.

She said she "noticed a pattern developing", and remarked that airport security personnel will "have to check every other passenger", given the number of people who have been held on a particular flight.

She made the comments while sentencing St Ann resident Owaine Allen who pleaded guilty last Tuesday in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrates Court, to trying to smuggle one pound of the weed.

The going rate for that amount of ganja in Curaçao is about US$2,000.

Last Monday, another St Ann resident, Robert Miller, had pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle eight ounces of the weed to Curaçao and was fined $4,800.

Attorney-at-law Morrell Beckford had told the court Miller was taking the "small quantity" of ganja to Curaçao for his and his friends' personal use.

Another attorney, George Thomas who represented Allen, said his client was accepting full responsibility and was coming clean.

Thomas asked the judge to show leniency as his client had fallen on hard times but now understood that he went about things the wrong way.

Allen was fined $1,600 plus $1,000 in costs or three months for possession, and $8,000 or three months for taking steps to export ganja.

He was also sentenced to six months and suspended for 18 months.

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