Pilot held with ganja at Norman Manley airport pleads guilty, fined

The pilot from the Turks and Caicos Islands who was charged April last year when parcels of ganja were found in his suitcase at an airport has pleaded guilty and was fined.

Kenado Thomas, 37, was today fined $15,000 for possession of ganja and $260,307 for attempting to export ganja when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court today.

King's Counsel Peter Champagnie and attorney-at-law Samoi Campbell, who represented Thomas, pleaded with the parish judge to be lenient with him.

The charges of conspiracy to export ganja and dealing in ganja were dismissed.

Thomas was on bail since May last year in the sum of $2 million with surety after his attorneys were successful in convincing the judge that despite his occupation he was not a flight risk.

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Thomas who at the time of the incident was employed to a well-known airline was about to board an airplane at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston that he was scheduled to fly when parcels of ganja weighing a total 18 pounds were found in his suitcase.

- Barbara Gayle