By Clinton McGregor
A businessman accused of attempting to ship a quantity of cocaine out of Jamaica, three years ago, was freed of drug trafficking charges on Wednesday before the St. Andrew Parish Court.
Mordecai Buckley was freed of charges of possession of cocaine, attempting to export cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine, dealing in cocaine and trafficking following no-case submissions by his attorney Peter Champagnie, KC.
The charges stemmed from a December 21, 2020 incident when a shipment that Mr. Buckley was attempting to export at Norman Manley international Airport was found to have cocaine concealed in boxes labelled as oats.
When arrested, Mr. Buckley told investigators that he was given the package by another man to be shipped to a Canadian address.
He then assisted the police by providing information on the man said to have given him the package which resulted in the arrest of co-accused Delroy Johnson.
Crown witnesses gave evidence that Johnson had delivered the sealed boxes of oats to Buckley's employees at a warehouse in Riverton City a couple days prior to December 21.
Buckley was not present at the time when the delivery was made and he did not pick up the boxes until the morning of the shipment.
His attorney argued that there was no evidence that Buckley at any point examined the boxes prior to taking them to the airport.
After hearing the submissions, the judge agreed and ordered his release.
The case against Mr. Johnson continues and is scheduled for Monday December 18.
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
