Deon Greene, Conributor
LONDON, England:
A JAMAICAN man, convicted of importing and supplying cocaine while laundering cash worth up to £47m, has been sent to prison for 14 years, in the United Kingdom.
The convict, 36-year-old Clifton Rochester, of a London address, admitted to conspiracy to import and supply cocaine, deception and money laundering offences when he appeared in the Bristol Crown Court.
The court heard that hundreds of kilogrammes of cocaine were smuggled from Jamaica to the U.K. by air and then transported to Bristol.
AIR HOSTESS JAILED
Rochester, the court was told, utilised the services of Marsha Paragonsingh, an Air Jamaica flight attendant and former Miss Jamaica beauty contestant, to smuggle the drugs in a body stocking.
Ms Paragonsingh from St Catherine, Jamaica pleaded guilty and was jailed for seven years for conspiracy to import the drugs.
In court, the trial judge, admonishing Rochester, told him that he used the 'obscene profit' from his drug operation to finance a lavish life style of motor cars, club class travels and other luxuries.
Rochester's wife, 29-year-old Latoya Grosse of London, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting to money laundering and deception offences.
OTHER GANG MEMBERS
His nephew, 25-year-old Marvin Young, was imprisoned for five years, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine.
Other members of Rochester's gang - 38-year-old Edmund Young of London and 31-year-old Gerald Jones of Bristol - were sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to a charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine. Elijah Beverley, 26, from Harrow Road, London, was jailed for five years after being found guilty of involvement in conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Rochester was held by the police in 2003 at Leicester City Football Club's Walker Stadium, on suspicion of smuggling drugs into the U.K.
