Record dagga trial wraps up with a 6-year prison term

A WINDHOEK resident arrested two years ago on a charge of dealing in a record quantity of dagga was convicted in the Windhoek Regional Court and sentenced to a six-year prison term on Friday.

Simon Links (56) has a previous conviction on a charge of dealing in dagga on his criminal record, Magistrate Dinnah Usiku was informed after she found Links guilty on a similar charge on Friday. Links and two co-accused, a 30-year-old South African citizen, Ncebazaki Tokola, and a 54-year-old resident of Goreangab in Katutura, Lea Dick, were arrested on June 27 2004, after detectives attached to the Police’s Drug Law Enforcement unit discovered 301 kilograms of dagga stored in Links’s house at Goreangab.According to the Police, the dagga, which was estimated to have a street market value of N$903 000, was the single largest quantity of the outlawed plant yet to have been found by the Police in Namibia.The charge against Tokola was eventually withdrawn for lack of evidence on November 30 last year, after she had spent a year and five months in custody.The case continued against Links and Dick, who both denied the charge.On Friday, Magistrate Usiku acquitted Dick and found Links guilty as charged.The court heard during the trial that the dagga in question had been found at Links’s home.Dick was also found at the house, but she claimed throughout that she had also just arrived at Links’s house and that she was not aware of the presence of the dagga when the Police arrived at the scene and discovered the drugs.The house was almost overflowing with dagga, which was packed in 12 nylon bags, two suitcases, and another large bag, the Police reported at the time.Having convicted Links, Magistrate Usiku was informed that he had previously been convicted on a charge of dealing in dagga.That conviction happened in May 2000, when he was found guilty on a charge of having dealt in 1,33 kg of dagga.Links was sentenced to a fine of N$1 000 or five months’ imprisonment for that offence.The second time around, he was not so lucky, and Magistrate Usiku sentenced him to six years in jail.He has already spent the past two years and almost three months in Police custody before the charge against him was finalised.Considering the quantity of dagga discovered in Links’s house, it was clear that he had played an important part in the supply chain delivering dagga from the producers of the substance to its users in Namibia, Public Prosecutor Carlo McLeod told the court when he addressed it before the sentencing.Defence lawyer Hennie Barnard represented Dick and Links.Links and two co-accused, a 30-year-old South African citizen, Ncebazaki Tokola, and a 54-year-old resident of Goreangab in Katutura, Lea Dick, were arrested on June 27 2004, after detectives attached to the Police’s Drug Law Enforcement unit discovered 301 kilograms of dagga stored in Links’s house at Goreangab.According to the Police, the dagga, which was estimated to have a street market value of N$903 000, was the single largest quantity of the outlawed plant yet to have been found by the Police in Namibia.The charge against Tokola was eventually withdrawn for lack of evidence on November 30 last year, after she had spent a year and five months in custody.The case continued against Links and Dick, who both denied the charge.On Friday, Magistrate Usiku acquitted Dick and found Links guilty as charged.The court heard during the trial that the dagga in question had been found at Links’s home.Dick was also found at the house, but she claimed throughout that she had also just arrived at Links’s house and that she was not aware of the presence of the dagga when the Police arrived at the scene and discovered the drugs.The house was almost overflowing with dagga, which was packed in 12 nylon bags, two suitcases, and another large bag, the Police reported at the time.Having convicted Links, Magistrate Usiku was informed that he had previously been convicted on a charge of dealing in dagga.That conviction happened in May 2000, when he was found guilty on a charge of having dealt in 1,33 kg of dagga.Links was sentenced to a fine of N$1 000 or five months’ imprisonment for that offence.The second time around, he was not so lucky, and Magistrate Usiku sentenced him to six years in jail.He has already spent the past two years and almost three months in Police custody before the charge against him was finalised.Considering the quantity of dagga discovered in Links’s house, it was clear that he had played an important part in the supply chain delivering dagga from the producers of the substance to its users in Namibia, Public Prosecutor Carlo McLeod told the court when he addressed it before the sentencing.Defence lawyer Hennie Barnard represented Dick and Links.