Supreme Court halts drug trafficking, money laundering trial of St James men
Published:Friday | September 20, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Supreme Court Judge Courtney Daye, who stayed the drug trafficking and money laundering trial of four St James men, today gave the go-ahead for one witness to testify by video link.
Convicted drug smuggler Christopher Drummond, who is serving a 27-year prison term in the United States, was allowed to testify in the trial of the men.
Drummond told the court that he was involved in a cocaine trafficking operation with Gayle and Dunbar.
Daye had ruled that after the evidence of the witness is given, there should be no further hearing until the application for leave to go to the Judicial Review Court is heard.
A date is to be set for the hearing.
The ordered to stay the trial, which began on Monday in the St James Parish Court, was made by Daye Thursday.
This followed an application by attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman.
The stay will remain until there is a determination of the application for judicial review to quash the trial.
The men Robert Dunbar, Louis Smith, Delroy Gayle and Melford Dailey are being represented by Queens Counsel Tom Tavares Finson and attorneys-at-law Hugh Wildman, Oswest Senior Smith, Martin Thomas and Faith Gordon.
On Wednesday, an application was made before Parish Judge Sandra Wong Small that the trial was a nullity and the case should be thrown out because the men were charged under the Money laundering Act which was repealed in May 2007 and replaced with the Proceeds of Crime Act.
When the application was refused, Wildman, who is representing Smith, took the matter to the Supreme Court.
It is being alleged that between 1999 and 2005 the men were involved in drug trafficking between Jamaica and the United States.
They were arrested and charged in September 2013.
Wildman explained that the trial is a nullity because the charges were brought under an Act that was repealed.
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