The Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca sent a powerful deterrence message today, sentencing a 31-year-old Moldovan national to 20 years in prison for possession of 15 kg of cocaine and 95 kg of cannabis.
The case is one of the largest adjudicated in Cyprus in recent years. The defendant held the massive quantities for distribution, which the court described as “a mine at the foundations of society.”
In its multi-page ruling, the court stressed that drug trafficking is a social scourge that particularly affects young people. Despite severe sentences handed down in the past, the problem has not receded — on the contrary, it has reached alarming proportions.
The court took into account a number of mitigating factors: the defendant’s young age, clean criminal record, poor financial situation, addiction to drugs and gambling, and his role as a mere courier in the trafficking chain.
However, the quantity and nature of the substances, combined with the need to protect social values, ultimately led to the exceptionally heavy sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. A message that justice will not back down in the fight against drugs.
