Western Bureau: When St Ann resident Aeon Jones swallowed cocaine and attempted to smuggle it out of the island on April 7 his intention, he said, was to earn enough money to keep his father’s farm lands in the family.

Instead, he was caught at the Sangster International Airport’s security checkpoint and sentenced to nine months behind bars and fined $210,000.

In court attorney Ernie Smith asked for mercy for his client, saying he was just a victim of circumstances.

The attorney explained that Jones’ father was the owner of a piece of farmland in St Ann, for which he had no title. And in order to secure needed funds, he said, the elderly gentleman borrowed money from a private citizen in the community.

When the time came to repay the loan however, Smith said Jones’ father could not meet his obligations and his son was “coerced” into joining the drug trade.

“The accused was coerced, invited, convinced that in an effort to save the family’s sole holding he had to perform the job of courier,” the attorney said. “A most pathetic situation, but this is the Jamaica we are living in.”

Based on these circumstances, Smith urged the court, his client could use some mercy; especially since he had admitted his guilt to airport security officials.

But presiding judge Valerie Stephens insisted that the offence was serious and one perpetrated too often.

For possession of the drug Jones was fined $60,000 or six months. For dealing in it he was fined another $60,000 or six months. And for attempting to export it he was fined $90,000 or six months and sentenced to nine months imprisonment at hard labour.