6 men charged with the largest drug bust get a retrial

One year and a half after the charge of facilitating the landing of a drug plane was struck out against six men by Justice Denis Hanomansingh, the Court of Appeal has ordered a retrial. The men – Police Officers Lawrence Humes, Renell Grant, Nelson Middleton, Jacinto Roches, Customs Boatman Harold Usher and civilian Victor Logan walked free in December 2012 when the judge directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty because of a lack of evidence.  The men were accused in what has been recorded as the biggest drug bust in local history. In mid-November 2010, the executive aircraft stuffed to the gills with eighty bales of Colombian cocaine landed along the Southern Highway near Bladen Reserve. D.P.P. Cheryl-Lynn Vidal sought leave for appeal, stating that the trial judge erred by not allowing them to put all their evidence before the jury. Attorneys for the defendants Simeon Sampson, Hubert Elrington and Anthony Sylvestre argued that there was no evidence which would have convinced a jury to find their clients guilty. Late this evening the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, set aside the verdict of acquittal and ordered a retrial before a judge other than Justice Hanomansingh.

Simeon Sampson, Co-counsel for Defendants

Simeon Sampson

“It’s not the end of the day, justice has been done, we fought. Like hell the law had been expounded, all attorneys for the prosecution and the defense did what we had to do. All of us are wiser now especially when the Court of Appeal would have handed down a decision because right now we don’t know what they accept or what they didn’t accept and what is the reason for their decision. When we have received the written decision then we would be able to educate ourselves thereby. But I am not at all disappointed.  As human beings it was more elevating but now this decision that come about all that is happened is that we go back before a jury and I am sure we are going to hurdle before a jury.”

The twenty-six hundred kilos of cocaine worth is estimated at twenty million US dollars.