Hotel worker had class A drugs in his bedroom
Class A drugs with a local street value of up to £14,000 were found in a hotel worker’s bedroom.
Milton Ventura Ferreira, 32, pictured, admitted being concerned in the supply to another of MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy, and possessing cannabis.
The Royal Court was told how officers executed a drug search warrant at his home – a staff accommodation bedroom in the hotel – on 31 May last year. He was the sole occupant and the only person there.
A total of 140g of MDMA, which had a local street value of up to £14,000, was found, along with 72 deal bags. There was 2.26g of herbal cannabis, valued at £90 to £130, and drug paraphernalia including a metal grinder and digital scales. There were also rolled up £1 notes with white powder at the end indicating drug use.
The defendant was arrested. In interview he confirmed the drugs within his room but denied selling any.
He said he smoked cannabis on a daily basis to help with anxiety and depression and to assist him in sleeping.
A friend had asked if they could keep drugs in his room and he had agreed. He received no payment for this and was under no pressure to do it.
He said the other person would attend his address twice a week to collect drugs and they would socialise too.
He said he helped himself to some of the MDMA, using it once or twice every six months when he had a party. He had been keeping the drugs for between nine months and one year, but refused to name the person he said he was holding them for.
The only matter on his record was a local drink-driving conviction from 2020.
Defending, Advocate Samuel Steel said his client had admitted profiting by about £1,000 from the sale of drugs. He had written a carefully crafted and sincere letter to the court in which he recognised the harm he had caused to the community of Guernsey which had been his home for seven years.
The other person involved was someone he had cared deeply for, who had since left the island and made no attempt to contact him since.
He had lost his job as a financial assistant at the hotel in October because of these offences. He wanted to restore his reputation on his release from prison, but knew that would not be in the island.
Judge Catherine Fooks said the defendant had provided a safe place for the drugs to be stored.
‘Supplying class A drugs ruins lives, must be marked, and the community protected,’ she said, though she noted Ferreira’s honest admissions.
He was jailed for five years for supplying MDMA, with no separate penalty for the cannabis offence. Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs was ordered. The court will make a recommendation to the office of the Lt-Governor that he should be deported on his release from prison.
