News

Deportee sentenced on drug charges

By PAUL A. REID, Staff Reporter

western bureau

A PORTMORE RESIDENT who was deported from the United States last year was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined $300,000 after he pleaded guilty to trying to export just under 1Kg (2.2lbs) of cocaine to Holland when he appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Thirty-six year-old Peter Laing, who admitted to the court he "made the wrong choices" and "had no good explanation" for his actions, asked the court to send him to a prison near his family as he resigned himself to his fate, and he was unable to pay the fines.

Laing was arrested at the Sangster International airport on May 31. THE STAR understands that when he was x-rayed at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, 108 pellets were packed in his stomach "from his throat all the way down".

The court heard that Laing was being processed for a Martin Air flight to Amsterdam on May 31 at around 8:40 p.m. when he was interviewed at the security check point and as a result was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he passed out the pellets over a four day period.

On Monday, the court heard that Laing went to the United States in 1998 on vacation and absconded, later marrying an American but never legalised his situation.

He lived there for six years until last year when he was deported on drug-related charges and since then has been living with his sister on whom he is totally dependent for sustenance.

He told the court that frustration got the better of him and he yielded to the temptations to smuggle drugs when he was approached as he thought it would be a good way to earn some money.

He was fined $100,000 or 15 months for possession of cocaine and $200,000 or 15 months for trying to export cocaine and sentenced to 15 months for dealing in cocaine.

The sentences are to run concurrently but he will spend another six months in jail if the fines are not paid.