A mandatory 10-year minimum sentence has been handed down after a Honduran national pleaded guilty to importing a handgun.
Mr. Justice Alexander Henderson imposed the sentence on Adalberto Escobar Zuniga of Guanaja de la Bahia.
Zuniga and another man were taken into custody in March after Customs officers boarded a cargo vessel at the George Town dock. They found a gun in a shoe in a plastic bag under Zuniga’s bed.
It was a Czech Republic police semi-automatic 9mm handgun. It had not been declared and no one had a licence for it.
Defence Attorney Ben Tonner said Zuniga accepted knowledge of the gun. But there was a clip with ammunition in the other shoe and Zuniga denied knowledge of it. The defendant said the bag had been handed to him by a fellow worker and he never looked at it.
There was discussion as to whether the presence of ammunition would add to the sentence for the gun. Mr. Justice Henderson was satisfied that ten years met the gravity of the offence.
He recommended that Zuniga be deported at the earliest opportunity.
The man implicated by Zuniga was released on 29 September. He had pleaded not guilty and a trial was scheduled.
However, Crown Counsel Elisabeth Lees indicated, Zuniga would have been the only witness against the man and the Crown was not able to present Zuniga as a witness of truth.
Without that evidence, there was insufficient evidence to proceed, she said.
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