BARBARA GAYLE, Staff Reporter

Former policeman Alpheus Wade, who is facing a kidnapping charge, pleaded guilty on Thursday in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court to possession of and dealing in ganja.

Resident Magistrate Georgianna Frasier will sentence him on Decemeber 8.

Wade, 33, also pleaded guilty to possession of and dealing in hashish. He also pleaded guilty to failing to secure ammunition in a safe place.

The ganja weighed 15.6 ounces and the hashish weighed 3,54 ounces which amounted to 1.32 pounds.

Rashida Gopie, who lives abroad and has a child for Wade, was visiting him when the police raided his house. She was charged jointly with him.

Yesterday, attorney-at-law Carolyn Chuck submitted that Gopie should be freed because there was insufficient evidence against her.

The Crown offered no evidence against Gopie.

Wade and Gopie were charged when the police went to Wade's home in Norbrook, St Andrew, in June looking for a businessman who was kidnapped.

The businessman was found at a house in Portmore, St Catherine. Wade was subsequently charged with kidnapping and his trial is pending in the Home Circuit Court.

He is being represented by attorney-at-law Franklin Halliburton.