NASSAU -A promoter caught with more than two kilos of cocaine and a small amount of marijuana in his suitcase has been jailed for one year.
D’Neco Cleare and his wife, Tequiera Pratt, were scheduled to travel Abaco on Western Air on September 20.
However, their plans were derailed when a baggage screener at the Lynden Pindling International Airport alerted police to suspicious packages in their luggage.
While searching a pink, floral suitcase, officers found two bricks of cocaine, potentially worth more than $40,000 on the streets. They also found less than an ounce of marijuana stuffed inside a sock.
Cleare, 31, immediately owned up to the drugs and told police that they didn’t need to arrest his wife, the court heard.
Cleare admitted to possession of marijuana and having cocaine with intent to supply at his arraignment before Magistrate Samuel McKinney, while his wife pleaded not guilty.
According to Cleare, he came across the cocaine on September 18 while riding a jet ski off Paradise Island.
For reasons unknown, Cleare decided to pack the “found cocaine” in his luggage.
Cleare has no prior convictions.
In asking the court for mercy, defense lawyer Wendawn Miller-Frazer said that Cleare was forthright with police and didn’t waste the court’s time.
Magistrate McKinney sentenced Cleare to one year in prison and fined him $10,000. Cleare paid the fine to avoid spending an extra year behind bars.
His wife was released from custody after the prosecutor Inspector Timothy Bain withdrew the charges against her.
