Vincentians pay BDS$40 000 cocaine trafficking fine in Barbados

Vincentians Francois Ironsi Roberts and Makaider Kristal Derrick are now back on home soil, after each paying BDS$20,000 in fines for trafficking cocaine in Barbados.

Roberts, 38, and Derrick, 24, were detained in Barbados at the Grantley Adams International Airport on Friday, August 26, by members of the Barbados Drug Squad after which they were charged with four drug offences.{{more}}

According to reports, the duo were on the same flight from St Vincent and after disembarking, Derrick’s luggage was searched by Customs personnel and three plastic bottles containing a liquid substance, suspected to be cocaine, were found in a black pouch concealed in her suitcase.

She was arrested, along with Roberts and further investigations resulted in Barbadian national Justin Selman, 47, of Lot 3A Berlin Road, St Philip also being arrested and charged for, Acts Preparatory To Traffic a Controlled Drug to Wit: Cocaine.

It was not certain how Roberts was tied to the drug bust, seeing that the drug was found in Derrick’s luggage, but when the three appeared at the District B Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, September 2, Derrick, who hails from Glen and Roberts, who lives at Dorsetshire Hill, did not waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, possession with intent to supply, trafficking and importation. They were remanded and when the duo appeared back in court on Thursday, September 8 for sentencing, they were each ordered to pay BDS$20,000 for the offence of trafficking and were convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other three charges.

Selman, on the other hand, who pleaded not guilty, was granted bail in the sum of $7,500, with one surety. He reappears in court on Thursday, September 29.

Roberts is no stranger to the law. On January 24, 2012, the disciplinary committee of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in the United Kingdom (UK) ordered Roberts removed from the student register and pay costs of £340, after he was found guilty of a drug offence on February 18, 2011 in the Crown Court at Croydon, pursuant to the ACCA’s bye-law 8(a) (i).

Roberts, who at the time resided at Thamesmead, London, was found guilty by a Croydon court of being knowingly concerned in fraudulent evasion of prohibition or restriction on importation of Class A controlled drugs.

Roberts and Derrick are now back home, but Roberts seems to be having a string of bad luck, as he is currently housed at the Male Surgical Ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) with two broken arms and a damaged neck, injuries allegedly sustained in a motorcycle crash.

Earlier this year, another Vincen­tian, Belair resident Vernice Stowe was fined and paid BDS$50,000 in relation to cocaine possession in Barbados.