Family of three and a friend busted for weed

Lionel Tillett

A family of three along with a close friend, all residents of Corozal Town, were arrested and charged today for drug trafficking.  They are thirty-four year old mechanic Lionel Tillett, his sister fifty-one year old Joan Tillett, her daughter twenty-seven year old Crissie Tillett and thirty-three year-old Shane Morgan.  This morning the group appeared before Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb McKenzie where Lionel pleaded guilty but it was subsequently rejected by the Chief Magistrate because she felt that he did not understand the severity of the crime.  She then explained to him that the charge of drug trafficking is a very serious offense which carries a three-year penalty and a ten thousand dollar fine.  The matter was adjourned until this afternoon where Tillett was asked to reconsider his plea before she accepted it.  Police say that on Friday, December seventeenth, at about eight-thirty p.m., they found them in possession of eighty-nine pounds of marijuana.

The bust occurred at the junction of the Boom Road with the Northern Highway.  Police say that at eight-thirty p.m. whilst at the Boom checkpoint their attention was drawn to a 1985 model four door Jeep Wagoneer.  It was stopped and its driver was identified as Lionel.  Police say they were then alerted by a strong aroma of suspected cannabis and then informed them that a thorough search would be done on the vehicle but that they will first be escorted to the Queen Street Police Station.  It was searched in their presence and in an adapted compartment beneath the vehicle police discovered thirty-two packages containing cannabis.