Dwayne Adams was yesterday sentenced to 54 months in prison and fined more than $2 million by a city court for conspiring to traffic cocaine, while his co-accused walked free.
Three earlier, Adams and Herbert Smith were both charged with conspiring with each other to traffic 848 grammes of cocaine on November 13th at the Alpha International Hotel, Ogle. The two had both pleaded not guilty to the charge.
However, at yesterday’s hearing before Magistrate Judy Latchman, Adams was read a new charge that stated that on November 13th, at the Alpha Hotel, he and Shawn Adams had conspired together and had been in possession of 848 grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. According to the prosecution, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had chosen not to pursue charges against Smith.
Adams pleaded guilty to the new charge brought against him.
The man’s attorney, Peter Hugh, in his plea to the court, stated that Adams had been moved to commit such an act because of his 10-year-old son who is suffering from leukemia, and treatment is very costly. He then implored the magistrate to impose the minimum penalty related to the crime, given the circumstances.
According to the prosecution’s facts, ranks from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), acting on information, had gone to a room at the hotel where they saw the two defendants and observed Adams throwing an ice cream bowl out of the room.
When the bowl was retrieved, the police found 20 pellets with what was suspected to be cocaine.
It was also reported that questioning of the two men led to Adams confessing to the police that he had swallowed 27 pellets, which he later excreted while he was a patient at the Woodlands Hospital. X-Rays of the co-accused had revealed that he had not swallowed any of the narcotics.
Magistrate Latchman said that before giving her ruling she had considered that the defendant had entered an early guilty plea, the method used to conceal the narcotics, its street value and the need to prohibit others from committing such an offence.
She therefore ruled that Adams pay a fine of $2,289,600 and spend 54 months in prison. She left the man with a final warning not to try anything of the sort again, and informed the number two accused, Smith, that he was free to go.
