By WANDEKA GAYLE, Staff ReporterJAMAICANS ARE FINDING more and more ingenious ways of transporting marijuana abroad. However, Narcotics police with the aid of sniffer dogs and X-ray machinery are clamping down on many of such ruses.
Last week Monday two men were arrested when almost 19 kilogrammes (nine pounds) of ganja was discovered wrapped in foil and hidden between compartments of two malfunctioning DVD players, bound for a Church of God Assembly in Barbados through the airport's courier service.
Two days before, on Saturday, March 20, 21-year-old British national, Kelly Royer, tried to smuggle one pound of cocaine to England in a roasted breadfruit.
Thirty-six-year old Jeffery Ellis of Cassava Piece, Constant Spring and Mark Green, 34, of Stony Hill, both in St. Andrew, were arrested in connection with the find last week Monday.
They appeared before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday to answer to charges of possession, dealing and taking steps to export drugs, and were offered $150,000 bail each.
Narcotics Police report that sniffer dogs alerted a courier to the package. When the courier checked the package, which contained the DVD players, he was forced to take the equipment apart where he discovered the ganja, which has a street value of US$65,000.
Third party
Ellis was immediately taken in for questioning. He informed Narcotics police that Green, said to be a Federal Express worker, as well as a third party referred to only as "Richie", had given him the package to mail. Police sought out Green at his home where he was subsequently arrested and charged. Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey ruled that the investigating officer update the file for April 30 when the matter will face the court again.
Unlike the other men, Royer pleaded guilty to charges of possession, dealing and attempting to export drugs. Royer had been visiting relatives in Portland.
According to report from the Canine Division at the the Norman Manley International Airport, sniffer dogs detected the cocaine in her luggage and she was subsequently arrested and charged.
Royer stood in the dock silently as RM Pusey postponed her sentencing until April 26.
