In what must be one of the most unusual drug busts in recent times, a man who swallowed 36 pellets of ganja (marijuana) and imported it to Jamaica from Trinidad, pleaded guilty to drug charges in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (November 3), and was sentenced to nine months in prison. The man, 28 year old Mark Maxam, a resident of Pelican Parade in Kingston 11, was also fined $6,400 and will serve an additional six months in prison if the fine is not paid.
Maxam was held at the Norman Manley International Airport on October 28, after he confessed during an interview. He was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital, where he expelled the pellets between October 28 and 31.
Dwight Williams, a 23 year old pan chicken vendor who tried to smuggle 15 pounds of ganja (hidden inside 20 bammies) to the Bahamas, was fined a total of J$135,000 and sentenced to nine months in prison when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on Friday (April 23).
The court heard that on April 19 of this year, Williams was held at the Norman Manley International Airport, after the drug was discovered hidden in the bammies in his luggage. Despite a lengthy plea for lenience by his lawyer in court, he was fined $15,000 or six months in prison for possession of ganja, $48,000 or six months in prison for dealing in ganja and $72,000 or six months in prison for taking steps to export ganja. If the fines are not paid, the sentences will run concurrent but consecutive to the nine month sentence.
An American citizen, who was held on October 17 at the Norman Manley International Airport with just over a pound of ganja (marijuana), faced the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court recently, where he told the judge that he needed the ganja for a pain in his testicles. His statement reportedly caused much laughter in the court, and the judge remarked also that she did not know that it was good for that purpose.
The American, Marvin Bailey, from a New York address, was held at the airport, after one pound and 17 ounces of ganja was found in his suitcase. In court, he pleaded guilty to possession of ganja, dealing in ganja and taking steps to export the drug, and was fined a total of J$18,600. In addition, he was given a mandatory three month jail sentence. Charges against his wife, who was jointly charged, were dropped after it was revealed in court that Bailey had told the arresting officer that his wife was not aware that the drug had been placed there.
Rose-Ann Campbell, a 25 year old primary school of Spanish Town in St. Catherine, appeared in the Spanish Town Criminal Court yesterday, where she pleaded guilty to the charge of possession of three ounces of ganja.
It is alleged that on August 27, Campbell went to the Spanish Town police lock-up with a parcel which she said contained a loaf of bread for her cousin who is a prisoner in the jail there. The parcel was searched, and three ounces of ganja were found, wrapped with plastic paper and embedded in the bread. She was arrested and charged.
She pleaded guilty with explanation, stating that her aunt asked her to take it to her son (Campbell’s cousin) at the lock-up, and that she did not know it contained ganja. The Resident Magistrate extended Campbell’s $40,000 bail bond, and adjourned the matter until to October 20 when Caombell will be sentenced. The Resident Magistrate also requested a social enquiry from the probation officer in order to help determine the degree of sentence to be handed down.
A British national – Angela Robinson – who tried to leave the island with five pounds of ganja hidden in a jar of cocoa butter lotion and 3 packs of wheat crackers, was sentenced to 9 months in prison when she appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
In addition to the sentence, she was also fined J$8,000 or 30 days for possession of ganja and J$24,000 or six months for attempting to export the drug, after she pleaded guilty to the charges. She also pleaded guilty to dealing in ganja, for which she was admonished and discharged and entered a not guilty plea on a charge of conspiracy to export ganja, that was withdrawn.
Christopher Campbell, who was facing similar charges for allegedly conspiring with her, was freed and the charges against him dropped. Both were held at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston on Monday (June 22), when they were seen carrying a suitcase in which the ganja was found.
When cautioned by the police, Campbell reportedly said that a man known as TC had given him the lotion to give Robinson, but indicated that he was unaware that it contained ganja. Further to that, Robinson while pointing out that the suitcase was hers, told the police that Campbell did not know anything about the drug.
