#Bahamas, December 18, 2017 – Nassau – Drugs and guns are being smuggled out of Haiti and into The Bahamas without a doubt and a major drug bust in Inagua last weekend further confirms the worst, as the interdiction netted a huge find of nearly $2m in cocaine with five Haitians arrested. Today those men, who were taken into custody after a search of their vessel exposed 106 packets of the illegal drug, are locked up at the Bahamas Department of Corrections. So far, one of the men, 47 year old Dones Benjamins of Cap Haitian has entered a guilty plea when he appeared in court last week Thursday. Benjamins was sentenced to five years.
The four co-accused are not so ready to admit to any guilt; they say they are not guilty and will face trial in February. The names revealed at the arraignment are: Walter Gustave, Marc Evens Belfort, Ifrandieu Clermonvil and Vickson Polydor; all from Haiti, and say they did not know the captain was trafficking the narcotics.
The Bahamas DEU and US Drug Enforcement Agency said it was intel which led them to search the freighter, though the men had already cleared immigration. A sealed compartment stored 43 packages of cocaine; another sealed compartment which was opened with a blow torch by investigators held another 63 packages of cocaine. The street value of the drugs is said to be over $1.7m. Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes sentenced Benjamins to five years for conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs with intent to supply, three years for conspiracy to import dangerous drugs, five years for possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply and three years for importation of dangerous drugs.
The sentences are to run concurrently. Still unreported is where this 273 pounds of cocaine was headed, or to whom.
#MagneticMediaNews
#majordrugbustinInagau
#DonesBenjaminsgetsfiveyearsimprisonment
Photo credit: The Tribune
