According to the details as read in court, police searched at a home on # 4 Gentle Avenue this morning at around 9 where they found two black plastic bags containing 171 grams of cannabis - or about 6 ounces. Police arrested and charged all 4 persons.

Ferguson pleaded guilty to the charge and asked the court to be lenient because his girlfriend, Tracy Ford, just recently had his baby. He also said that he doesn't want to lose his job.

Magistrate Stuart told Ferguson that he has heard his mitigation, and she will exercise her judgment and sentence him to pay a fine. She also told him, however, that, due to offense that he has pleaded guilty to, her hands are tied in deciding how large the sum of the fine will be.

As a result, Magistrate Stuart sentenced him to a fine of $10,000 to be paid by March 30th, or he will spend 3 years in prison if he defaults.

A regular court history check revealed that he owed the court $200 fine for a drug possession conviction in August 2002, so instead of walking out a free man, he was taken into custody for that fine.

Since Ferguson pleaded guilty to the charge, the other 3 defendants were expecting the prosecution to withdraw the charge against them. But they were blind-sided when the prosecution told the court that as per new practices, all directives of charge withdrawals must come from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which cannot be done until tomorrow.