HAVANA (Reuters):
A CUBAN court sentenced three Jamaican men caught smuggling 1,340 pounds (610kg) of marijuana to prison terms of up to 20 years, the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma reported on Saturday.
Rudolph Allen Black, Malson Campbell and Robert Wallace were arrested last November after their speedboat ran out of fuel and drifted near a cay off Cuba's north-eastern coast.
MARIJUANA THROWN OVERBOARD
Cuban officials said the men had thrown the bales of marijuana overboard.
The drugs were recovered and later incinerated by Cuban officials.
Campbell was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Black to 18 years and Wallace 17 years, Granma reported.
They had set out from Jamaica and were apparently heading for The Bahamas, but were intercepted, thanks to a tip-off from the Jamaica Defence Force, the newspaper said.
Cuba harshly punishes drug traffickers to stop narcotics entering the country, which is located in the path of smuggling routes for cocaine and marijuana flowing from South America and the Caribbean to the United States.
Cuban authorities say they do not have vessels fast enough to chase smugglers using boats with powerful outboard motors to run drugs through thousands of unpatrolled and secluded cays off Cuba's north coast.
