Larnaca court slaps nine year sentence for drugs

A court sentenced 29-year-old Dimos Anastasiades from Larnaca to nine years in prison on Friday for the possession of nine kilos of cannabis in February.

The Larnaca district court found him guilty of possessing 8,972 grammes of cannabis with intent to supply.

On February 19, a courier company located in the old Larnaca airport detected a package containing the drugs which had arrived from abroad.

They immediately informed the authorities, and members of the drug squad put the area under surveillance. In the evening of the same day, the 29-year-old was arrested when he returned to his car having picked up the package from the company.

Anastasiades initially claimed the package contained clothes. When questioned, he later admitted he knew it contained drugs but said they were not his, and that he was sent to pick up the package. He did not say, however, for whom they were intended.

He was then confronted with the fact that the package was addressed to his brother and said he went to pick it up because his brother is known to the drugs squad.

The arrested man had previously been convicted twice by the Nicosia district court for the possession of illegal drugs.

The defence counsel of the 29-year-old pointed out that he comes from a large family, his mother has serious health problems, his father is addicted to gambling, his 27-year-old brother has been dependent on drugs for years, while the defendant himself started using addictive substances and alcohol at the age of 16.

The court said they imposed severe and dissuasive penalties because drugs are a scourge that affects the physical and moral wellbeing of people and in many cases lead to misery and death. They also took into account the personal circumstances and mitigating factors, including the fact that he gave himself up to police and admitted his guilt.

Dimos Anastasiades was sentenced to nine years for possession with a view to supply and one year for false impersonation. The two sentences will run concurrently.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.