A St Catherine man is scheduled to appear in the Manchester Circuit Court on Thursday, January 23 for an asset forfeiture hearing, four months after he was convicted of drug charges following a traffic stop in Manchester.

He is Mahlon Davis, a resident of Ewarton in St Catherine.

In a notice published in the media, the Financial Investigations Division (FID) said it has applied for the forfeiture of assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act and named Davis as the defendant.

The FID told the Jamaica Observer that its lawyers will present a case to the court demonstrating how Davis has benefited from a criminal lifestyle or a specific criminal activity and ask the court to forfeit the assets or cash available to the Crown.

“In this instance, if based on our investigations the gentleman was able to benefit to a [certain figure], the lawyers would have to prove that to the court to say, based on the number of transactions over a period of time and based on what the police have provided in terms of his involvement in certain types of criminal activity, then they make an application to the court to deprive him of that benefit,” the FID said.

“It doesn’t have to be all cash, it could be through his earnings from the criminal activity. He may have purchased real estate or a vehicle or some other type of asset, then the application would ask the court to forfeit that to the Crown,” the FID added.

Last September the Jamaica Constabulary Force issued a news release stating that the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division conducted an operation on the Hatfield main road in Manchester, on Monday, July 25 which resulted in the seizure of approximately two kilograms of cocaine and 12 pounds of ganja leading to Davis’s conviction on Monday, September 23.

Davis was charged with breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

The police report said lawmen were in the Hatfield area when they saw Davis driving a Toyota Axio motor car with a woman as a passenger aboard. He was signalled to stop — he complied. A search of the vehicle was conducted which revealed two garbage bags containing ganja in the trunk of the car, and one kilogram of cocaine was seen hidden behind the glove compartment of the motor vehicle.

Police said a further search of the vehicle also revealed another kilogram of cocaine that was concealed in another part of the vehicle.

Davis and the woman were taken into custody; however, during the investigation, the woman was released.

Davis pleaded guilty to possession of and trafficking in illegal substances when he appeared before the Manchester Parish Court on Monday, September 23.

He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for possession of ganja or $15,000; six months’ imprisonment for trafficking ganja or $105,816.00; six months for possession of cocaine or $500,000; and four months’ suspended sentence or $500,000 for trafficking cocaine.

The release had said the sentences were to run concurrently if the fines were not paid.