A police officer testified for the prosecution that on March 16, he was at the border in Benque Viejo Town when he saw 2 men walk across from Puga's Farm to a maroon car which was parked on the highway. They had a bulky plastic bag with them, and when they arrived at the vehicle, they put it in the trunk. The police thought this behavior was suspicious and so, the vehicle was intercepted. All 3 men were in the vehicle at the time, and the bag was searched. The officers found 17.233 Kilograms - or 37.9 pounds - of marijuana in the bag, and so they were jointly charged with drug trafficking.

In their defence, each of the men gave sworn testimony that they didn't know anything about a bag of weed being in the back of the vehicle. After considering all the evidence in the case, Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith informed the defendants that, in her view, the prosecution proved all the elements of the charge. With that she found the men guilty.

All 3 men were sentenced to serve 3 years in jail. Richard Smith was sentenced to the stiffest of the fines, $15,000 to be paid forthwith, and in default, he will serve 3 other years in default. That's because he had previous convictions for drug possession and 2 convictions for drug trafficking. Jason Phillips was sentenced to pay $11,000 forthwith or 3 years in default. Kent Nunez was additionally sentenced to pay a fine of $10,000 forthwith, or 3 years in default. All sentences are to run consecutively, which means that if the men default on payment, they will have to spend 6 years in jail.

Their attorney, Arthur Saldivar, has informed the court that he intends to appeal this conviction, and he also asked the court to consider a more lenient sentence for the men in relation to the fines, such as a payment plan for the men since they will be incarcerated for 3 years.