Visitor fined $12k for ammo in baggage

An American visitor has been fined $12 000 for possessing 15 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit, in a case that prompted his defence attorney to question airport screening procedures after the ammunition was detected only as the visitor prepared to leave Barbados.

Chadwick Jerome Wright, of Ledgerock Way, Durham, North Carolina, was ordered to pay the fine immediately for the offence committed on October 14.

The No.3 Supreme Court heard that Wright and his wife had come to the island to celebrate his 50th birthday and stayed at a hotel. Airport personnel discovered the ammunition in his baggage as he prepared to return home. Police were called, and he was arrested and charged.

In his explanation, Wright said that, after checking in at the US airport before his departure, he discovered that he had a magazine containing ammunition. He sought to leave the airport to return to his vehicle but was advised by personnel that this was unnecessary, as he could travel with it as long as it was in his checked baggage.

Making sentencing submissions on Wright’s behalf, Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim expressed concern about the matter, asking: “How are these things going through a scanner in the US, going through a scanner in Barbados and not being picked up?”

He pointed to the similar recent case of Jackson Randall, who was arrested and charged after security officers scanning checked luggage at the airport spotted a firearm in a black duffel bag destined for Miami.

Pilgrim stressed that the man’s baggage had passed through “two US airports, the Panama airport and the Barbados airport without being detected”. 

Pilgrim said: “It seems strange to me that in one month, we have had five or six of these cases now. There are more in the pipelines coming as we speak and for the last ten years we have had none like this. I am happy to know in Barbados that we are scanning at some point but it makes me wonder, are we not scanning inbound when it might be of greater concern.”

Saying his client understood that these matters were treated more seriously in Barbados than in the US, the defence attorney urged the court to consider that Wright had travelled with the ammunition entirely by mistake.

“The items were packed in his bag. They were not concealed. He had no intentions of running afoul of the laws of Barbados,” Pilgrim said, noting Wright’s efforts to return to his car to secure the items before being told they were allowed in his checked baggage.

State Counsel Kwame Ramsay proposed a starting point of ten years’ imprisonment for the offence. He submitted that the mitigating factors warranted a two-year reduction: the ammunition had not been used in any offence and had been recovered; Wright had attempted to return it to his vehicle but had been assured by personnel that it could be carried in checked luggage; he had admitted his guilt early; and he had no previous convictions.

The prosecutor also said deductions should be made for the guilty plea and time spent on remand, leaving a sentence of five years and four months. He then suggested a fine of $15 000 as an alternative.

Justice Carlisle Greaves said: “That was some unfortunate advice that he unfortunately took. It may be A-OK to do so in the United States, where you can travel on an aircraft with ammunition from state to state. It is not so in these islands.”

The court noted that Wright was a licensed firearm carrier in the US and that there was no evidence contradicting his account of the advice he had received and followed.

“It was also his first visit to the island and he was unaware of the law and culture of this island. He was contrite about the matter and his excuse was very plausible that he really had no intention to unlawfully possess, or distribute that ammunition in this island. He was on the way out when these events unfolded.”

Justice Greaves stressed that, in today’s world, such cases had to be properly scrutinised by a judge because it was well known that travellers sometimes transported ammunition and firearms in parts for distribution.

But there was no evidence of that in this case, he said.

“This is an unfortunate circumstance that has happened to you…Mistakes can be made sometimes very innocently and I find some sympathy for you in these circumstances.”

Pointing to the month Wright had spent at Dodds Prison, the judge reiterated the need for matters in which people wished to plead guilty to be expedited to the Supreme Court. He commended the prosecution and defence for their cooperation in handling the case.

He said that, in the circumstances, a fine of $12 000, payable immediately, would meet the justice of the case, with the alternative being five years’ imprisonment, stating: “We may be small but we have to have strict laws when it comes to these things.”

The fine was paid.

(JB)