Latest update November 1st, 2024 12:59 AM
Jamaican jailed, fined $1.4M for cocaine in deodorant
Jamaican national, Easton Stapleton, who was busted with cocaine concealed in roll-on deodorant
JAILED: Easton Stapleton
containers, at the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) last week, was yesterday sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined $1.4M.
Stapleton, a father of four, appeared before Magistrate Leron Daly in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts where the sentence was handed down.
The remorseful man told the court that his family is unaware that he has been incarcerated in Guyana. He begged the Magistrate for leniency and said that he is the sole breadwinner for his family which comprises four minor children. Stapleton claimed that someone invited him to Guyana to traffic the drug as a means of earning an income because his home is in the process of being foreclosed by the bank.
He said that Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) ranks offered him a deal in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation. However, he stated that he feels as if he is “being thrown to the wolves” because of him being placed before the courts.
Attorney Konyo Sandiford-Thompson prosecuted the case for CANU.
According to court facts, Stapleton was caught by CANU ranks attempting to smuggle 526 grams of cocaine out of the country via the GPOC on August 10, last. The illicit drug was unearthed after ranks searched a box containing roll-on deodorant and a quantity of markers.
It was reported that the cocaine was concealed in the ball-like object atop of the deodorant.
When Stapleton made his first court appearance last Friday, he claimed that he went to the post office on instruction to ship a box containing the items. He said that when he arrived at the GPOC, he was told that he needed to provide a local address to do so.
The man stated that he left the post office abruptly and tossed the items in a nearby garbage bin, since he did not have a local address. Stapleton added that as he was leaving the GPOC, CANU ranks pursued him, later questioning him about the narcotic.
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