Trafficker ingests drugs for importation

Narcotics smuggler Osbourne Dixon spent two weeks at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) expelling 53 taped packages of marijuana.

The 59-year-old from No. 14 Aretena Place, Queensbury, Kingston, Jamaica who arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport on August 2 appeared before the District ‘B’ Magistrate’s Court today and pleaded guilty to trafficking in one kilogramme of the vegetable matter with an estimated street value of $8,000.

He also admitted to possession, possession with intent to supply and importation of the illegal substance.

Dixon arrived here around 6:35 p.m. from Kingston for a seven-day vacation.

Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls, the prosecutor, revealed to the court that police stopped Dixon, after he cleared immigration, on suspicion that he had ingested a controlled substance.

He consented to having a medical examination and was later taken to the QEH where an x-ray discovered foreign bodies in his system. He subsequently passed out the packages.

Officer Carter-Nicholls explained that Dixon had difficulty passing out the packages and was released from hospital into police custody on August 18.

“I took the marijuana to Barbados to get money because things hard in Jamaica,” the trafficker told police during an interview.

Today however, he told Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell that he did not know how much compensation he would receive for bringing the drug into the country, as he did not have any discussion with anyone about money.

“It was a chance that I took,” the father of three, who is on his first visit to Barbados, told the magistrate.

Dixon was fined $10,000 forthwith with an alternative of 18 months in prison on the trafficking charge. He was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other three offences.

The money was not paid today and he was taken to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds.