Carol Andrea Gilmore, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty to importing more than 200 grams of cannabis resin on November 5.

Carol Andrea Gilmore, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty to importing more than 200 grams of cannabis resin on November 5. She also admitted possessing the drug with intent to supply. "I would just like to apologise for my actions," the 41-year-old mother-of-two told Magistrates' Court. "I'm deeply sorry. For the sake of my children and my mom, have mercy on me please." According to Crown counsel Maria Sofianos, Gilmore entered the Island on a commercial flight from Toronto, Ontario around 12.10 p.m. She took one piece of luggage off the conveyor belt at LF Wade International Airport, and left. At 2.10 p.m. that day, the Police Drug Unit Office received information in relation to Gilmore, who was staying at the Clear View Suites & Villas in Hamilton Parish. Officers arrived at the guest cottages where they found the defendant at the front desk, asking for calling cards.
She proceeded to leave the front desk, at which time officers approached her for questioning. Gilmore asked: "Can we do this in private?" She was taken to an office area where she told Police: "I think I have been set up, I have something in my bag, I was sent here by someone." The court heard that inside Gilmore's purse was a grey plastic bag wrapped in white tissue paper containing what she called "little black gum stuff". At 3.32 p.m. the defendant was arrested and cautioned, to which she made no reply. She was then taken to the airport Police Station, where a further search of the plastic bag revealed there were eight small Ziploc bags with four cylindrical gum-like substances in each. A Government analysis of the substance showed it was 208.46 grams of resin and carried a street value in Bermuda of $20,850.
Gilmore was represented by lawyer Rick Woolridge. He said his client had acted "desperately" in a bid to save her sick mother. "In relation to Ms Gilmore, she was taken advantage of. Her circumstances regarding her personal finances is what led her to take this regrettable action. Those are such that her business was failing in this current economy and her mother, who is gravely and terminally ill, was in need of additional monies for her medical expenses. "Ms Gilmore realises what she has done is wrong from the very beginning and prior to receiving counsel has been very helpful towards the Police." Mr. Woolridge asked Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner to deal with Gilmore whose children are 19 and 20 in the most lenient way possible. "Ms Gilmore's paramount concern right now is her dying mother," he said. "We understand the court takes seriously drug importation in relation to this Island, but we are asking the court for as much leniency as possible. In these desperate times people are doing all sorts of desperate things."
The charges carry a maximum penalty of ten years in jail. Mr. Warner took into consideration Gilmore's personal circumstances, her cooperation with Police and her previously good character, before sentencing her to 18 months' imprisonment.

Read More

Drug mules are playing a 'game of chance' with their lives as they swallow liquid cocaine to try to make some quick money.

Drug mules are playing a 'game of chance' with their lives as they swallow liquid cocaine to try to make some quick money.Narcotics police on the island are on the lookout for smugglers who could be heading to the island after gulping down scores of homemade drug capsules.Seeing "nothing but dollar signs", the mules can swallow up to a kilo of liquid cocaine - which has a street value in Bermuda of about $30,000. They line their stomachs with liquid cocaine pellets stashed inside latex, even though the tiniest of tears can cause the liquid drug to seep out and kill them.This form of drug smuggling - known as body packing - is on the increase across the world and overdoses and deaths are not uncommon. Narcotics officer Sergeant Hayden Small spoke to the Bermuda Sun about the police service's "growing concern" and suggested swallowers could already be getting onto the island.Sgt. Small, who has specialized in narcotics for 12 years, said: "These swallowers are putting their own lives at risk, but they don't care, all they see is the dollar signs. It doesn't take much for the latex to rip then the liquid drug can seep into the body. Just a couple of drips of liquid cocaine leaking in your stomach can be lethal."Swallowers can become sick on the plane then perish to death. Once liquid cocaine leaks into your stomach, you've gone and you're not coming back."The technique involves dissolving the crystalline white cocaine in water then creating homemade pellets using a machine which supposedly ensures an airtight seal. Drug mules used to swallow drugs inside of condoms or balloons, but it is now thought that the fingers of surgical latex gloves, which are more sturdy, are the material of choice. However, the release of gastric acids in the stomach can burn through the latex, and leakage nearly always means a massive overdose and death.Drug mules can swallow anything from 10 to 120 pellets of cocaine - which are about two inches long and half an inch wide. If the cocaine was about 75% pure, 120 pellets (or a kilo) of cocaine would make between $27,000 and $30,000 on Bermuda's streets.The mules will take tablets to induce constipation during the course of the trip then take laxatives when they have arrived at a pre-arranged address. The amount of cash depends on the number of pellets they can swallow, but they only usually get paid at the end of the journey after the safe delivery of the consignment.Sgt. Small stressed that although no one had been caught with drugs in liquid format in Bermuda, it was extremely difficult to detect. As airport X-ray machines can only scan luggage rather than people, the majority of swallowers are believed to slip through undetected.Sgt. Small said: "This is something that has been brought to our attention. Drugs are getting into the island and this could be through swallowing in liquid format.
"We don't know of it happening in Bermuda for sure, but we are on the lookout because it is already a trend around the world."Most large drug seizures in Bermuda tend to take place at the airport or at the docks. Sgt. Small said at the airport, drugs can be found at the freight shed, at courier businesses or the Bermuda mail processing centre. He added that neither Customs nor police officers can infringe upon people's human rights unless they have specific intelligence to suspect someone has swallowed drugs. Detecting drugs in the stomach involves swabs being taken and the suspect having to wait at the hospital under guard until the drugs have passed through their system.Sgt .Small said the street value of cocaine and heroin made them the drugs of choice to swallow, but all drugs continue to be smuggled into the island.He said: "A small amount of cocaine or heroin are easy to conceal when swallowing. Cannabis isn't as popular as it becomes bulky and it doesn't have the street value to make it worthwhile to swallow."Sgt. Small stressed it "wasn't worth the risk" to smuggle drugs. "We are watching you," he warned: the police study the travel movements of anyone they suspect as well as "locals heading to non-traditional destinations." Sgt. Small added that there was also "a lot more information [shared] between agencies" such as Customs, the National Drug Council and even the FBI.He said: "It's a chance you take, but it's a huge chance. You are playing with your life. If you take the chance then you have to deal with the consequences."

Read More

Dennis "King" Pamplin, 58, of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Brian Henry, 31, of Bloomfield. arrested

Federal authorities in New Jersey say they have broken up a drug trafficking ring that was a major supplier of marijuana to Bermuda -- in the process touching off a political scandal on the island. Two men, one a resident of Bloomfield and the other alleged to be the husband of a top government official in Bermuda, were arrested after agents seized 700 pounds of marijuana last week at a warehouse in Orange. Douglas Collier, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Newark, said the operation differed from most, because rather than importing drugs into this country the traffickers were big-time exporters. The agency believes the traffickers had made five shipments totaling more than 2,000 pounds from Port Newark to Bermuda since last summer. Agents valued the pot at $15 million.
"It was unique," Collier said. "They were taking advantage of this beautiful island without law enforcement looking at them."
Taken into custody at the warehouse on July 15 were Dennis "King" Pamplin, 58, of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Brian Henry, 31, of Bloomfield.
Authorities said Pamplin's wife is a member of parliament in Bermuda, although he was found living in New York with a woman described in court papers as his girlfriend. Patricia Gordon-Pamplin is the shadow minister of works and engineering and deputy leader of the United Bermuda Party. Her husband's arrest, which has been big news in the Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper, has led to calls for her to resign, but so far she has refused. His lawyer said the couple have two children.

Henry and Pamplin were charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, a federal offense. Their case has been assigned to federal court in Manhattan.

The two have been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn; Henry without bail and Pamplin on a $2 million bond that will require the posting of property in Florida. If released, Pamplin also would be required to remain under house arrest with electronic monitoring.

According to a DEA complaint, the marijuana was owned by Pamplin. Just after noon on July 15, a DEA agent accompanied by other officers who had been watching the warehouse confronted Pamplin and Henry as they left the building. Pamplin gave them permission to search the place, the agent wrote.

A drug-sniffing dog then got interested in six concrete pillars, each 6 feet long and nearly 2 feet around. At that point, Henry allegedly told agents the columns had marijuana hidden inside, and police found it secured in 5-foot-long metal cylinders encased in the concrete.

The agent said Henry told them he assisted in packaging the shipments while Pamplin arranged for their transport.

Henry also told the officers that Pamplin was involved in a car chase in Morris County last year after he was ripped off trying to buy 227 kilograms of marijuana for $120,000. Chatham police records show Pamplin was arrested with two others after a chase on Aug. 28, 2007, and that the trio was found with $97,000, the agent stated.
The agent said a search of Pamplin's home last week turned up records showing wire transfers of thousands of dollars between bank accounts of his in this country and Bermuda from 2005 until this year.
Defense lawyer Paul Bergrin maintained Pamplin is in the asbestos removal business and simply stopped by the warehouse to check out a job, unaware marijuana was on the premises. He insisted Henry pointed the finger at his client in an effort to save himself and predicted Pamplin will be cleared.
Henry's attorney did not return a call for comment.

Read More