Glenroy Sinclair, Senior Crime Reporter
A major narcotics operation, which targeted illegal drug dealers in Montego Bay, St. James, paid rich dividends last week, when the police seized cocaine with a street value of $12 million.
They also seized 135 pounds of compressed ganja, while arresting at least seven people, including an attorney-at-law from Toronto, Canada.
Head of the Narcotics Division, Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson, said 25 pounds of the cocaine was discovered in the customs hall of the Norman Manley International Airport, Kingston, last week.
Another 89 pellets (2.2 pounds) more cocaine was found at the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, last Thursday. Reports are that 33-year-old barber, Keith Daley, of a Bristol address in the United Kingdom, was in the process of boarding a flight to Heathrow International Airport, when he was stopped and interviewed. He was suspected of having swallowed crack/cocaine.
According to narcotics investigators, Mr. Daley was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later passed out the 89 pellets of crack/cocaine. Mr. Daley appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday and was found guilty. He was sentenced to a four-year prison term and fined more than $250,000. The intelligence-driven operations in Montego Bay took place between October 14 and 19.
Upscale community
It has been further reported that members of the Montego Bay narcotics team swooped down on a house in the upscale community of Paradise in the capital. Three persons, including a common-law couple, Howel Clarke, 39, and Julieth Smith, 45, were arrested.
They were held in connection with a number of packages of compressed ganja that were allegedly found in the house. During the operation, two persons, who were driving towards the house, were stopped and their vehicle searched. A quantity of counterfeit US$100 notes and J$1,000 bills were found inside the car.
In another upscale community, Porto Bello, in Montego Bay, a house was raided and 40-year-old mechanic, Winston Vernan, Natalie Francis, manager of a rent-a-car company and Patrick Wilson, 52, attorney-at-law, of Canada, were detained after the police found a quantity of compressed ganja and hash oil and several pieces of equipment.
