Drug mule Quami Cumberbatch, who tried to board a plane to Barbados with cocaine hidden in his underwear and in his stomach, was yesterday sentenced to four years in jail and fined over $2 million in total for narcotics trafficking.
Cumberbatch, 26, of 54 d’Urban Street, who had been held at the Ogle International Airport on January 28, was sentenced and fined by two different courts yesterday.
Cumberbatch, a miner, pleaded guilty to a charge that he had 518 grammes of cocaine for trafficking when he appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul at the Better Hope Community Centre, which is being used to hear matters being dealt with by the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.
Meanwhile, in a city court, Cumberbatch was also charged over 194 grammes of cocaine that he had excreted between January 28 and January 29, at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
According to the police’s facts on the drugs that were found in Cumberbatch’s underwear, he had been an outgoing passenger at the Ogle International Airport, where he was about to board a flight that was destined for Trinidad and onward to Barbados.
He was selected for a search by ranks of the Police Narcotics Branch, who discovered 46 pellets that were in a sealed transparent bag that was concealed in his underwear.
Prosecutor David Goodridge, who read the facts, said that Cumberbatch was then told of the offence and cautioned by the ranks. He then later admitted to the ranks that the drugs were his and that he had also swallowed an additional set of pellets, the prosecutor added.
The prosecutor said that the cocaine that was found in Cumberbatch’s underwear amounted to 518 grammes.
Cumberbatch was later escorted to the Georgetown Public Hospital and was admitted as a patient.
Magistrate Ally-Seepaul subsequently sentenced Cumberbatch to four years in prison and fined him $1,398,600.
In the Georgetown court of Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, Police Prosecutor Deniro Jones said that while Cumberbatch was a patient at the Georgetown Hospital, he discharged 16 pellets containing a total of 194 grammes of cocaine. As a result, he was later told of his additional offence and was charged.
Chief Magistrate McLennan subsequently sentenced Cumberbatch to three years in jail and fined him $873,000.
The two prison sentences that were handed down by the magistrates will run concurrently.
