NewsWhore
03-21-2012, 01:00 PM
The voyage of the yacht "Carefree IV" which began in the Dominican Republic in 2010 ended in the Supreme Court in Bermuda on 16 March when four men were sentenced to 5 to 8.5 years in prison for attempting to smuggle more than US$3 million worth of cannabis into the island.
Earlier this week, four of the "Carefree Five" plead guilty to drug charges minutes before their trial was due to start. Carlos Rogers, Shaun Johnson, Kinola Simons and Bilal Shakir all pleaded guilty to possessing or handling the controlled drug cannabis. The cannabis was said to weigh about 150lbs, with a value of US$3.4 million.
Rogers n who was one of the two who sailed from the Dominican Republic n was given 8.5 years. Johnson was given 6 years, while Simons and Shakir were both given five-year sentences.
The fifth defendant o Kwesi Hollis o denied all the charges and walked out of Court a free man.
The prosecution told the court that two of the men had left Bermuda by plane, had spent several weeks in the Dominican Republic, had bought a boat, and had spent 49 days sailing that boat back to Bermuda, where they met a Boston Whaler offshore with the other men.
This entire operation had been followed by Police, who tracked and met the Boston Whaler when it sought to return to land on the North Shore side.
Police boats, with armed policemen on board, chased the Whaler. During this chase, the three men threw the cargo over the side but it floated and Policed retrieved all of it.
Rogers, 42, and Hollis, 37, sailed from the Dominican Republic on December 1, 2010 on the "Carefree IV" and had been due to arrive in Bermuda later that month.
After the two men were days overdue the boat was declared missing, and a US Coastguard C-130 aircraft had conducted an aerial search for the missing boat, covering an area of 19,000 square miles to the east and southeast of Bermuda just before Christmas. In addition, a vessel from the Dominican Republic Navy division also searched for the two men.
http://bernews.com/2012/03/carefree-four-sentenced-to-5-8-years/
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
Earlier this week, four of the "Carefree Five" plead guilty to drug charges minutes before their trial was due to start. Carlos Rogers, Shaun Johnson, Kinola Simons and Bilal Shakir all pleaded guilty to possessing or handling the controlled drug cannabis. The cannabis was said to weigh about 150lbs, with a value of US$3.4 million.
Rogers n who was one of the two who sailed from the Dominican Republic n was given 8.5 years. Johnson was given 6 years, while Simons and Shakir were both given five-year sentences.
The fifth defendant o Kwesi Hollis o denied all the charges and walked out of Court a free man.
The prosecution told the court that two of the men had left Bermuda by plane, had spent several weeks in the Dominican Republic, had bought a boat, and had spent 49 days sailing that boat back to Bermuda, where they met a Boston Whaler offshore with the other men.
This entire operation had been followed by Police, who tracked and met the Boston Whaler when it sought to return to land on the North Shore side.
Police boats, with armed policemen on board, chased the Whaler. During this chase, the three men threw the cargo over the side but it floated and Policed retrieved all of it.
Rogers, 42, and Hollis, 37, sailed from the Dominican Republic on December 1, 2010 on the "Carefree IV" and had been due to arrive in Bermuda later that month.
After the two men were days overdue the boat was declared missing, and a US Coastguard C-130 aircraft had conducted an aerial search for the missing boat, covering an area of 19,000 square miles to the east and southeast of Bermuda just before Christmas. In addition, a vessel from the Dominican Republic Navy division also searched for the two men.
http://bernews.com/2012/03/carefree-four-sentenced-to-5-8-years/
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)