Jamaican Jailed For Ganja
September 1, 2010
CaribWorldNews, RICHMOND, VA, Weds. Sept. 1, 2010: A 44-year-old Jamaican man will have to spend the next 20 years of his life in jail for his role in a drug ring that moved large quantities of marijuana through Petersburg.
Dane Clark was this week sentenced by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson in Richmond, Virginia to concurrent 20-year sentences for his convictions of conspiracy to launder money and possession with the intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana. He pleaded guilty to the charges on May 13 but contested the amount of marijuana he allegedly handled.
Evidence in the case showed that Clark joined the drug operation in May 1997 when members of the organization were driving to Houston and returning to Petersburg with 250 to 300 pounds of marijuana at least once a month. The drugs were then distributed in the central Virginia area.
He later recruited women to fly to California with large sums of money concealed on their bodies. In Los Angeles, they would exchange the money for loads of marijuana. At the airport, they would be directed to a particular X-ray scanner operated by an individual working for the California supplier, so that they could carry the suitcases filled with marijuana with them on the flights.
The couriers would transport the suitcases to Northern Virginia, where Clark would meet them, pay them and take the marijuana to Petersburg for redistribution.
In July 1998, after the arrest of another member of the group in Tennessee, Clark left Virginia. Soon after, he began to supply a member of the organization with between 50 and 300 pounds of marijuana from New York. Clark either engaged in the transactions or brokered them until about Sept. 11, 2001.
Other members of the operation were arrested in 2003, but authorities could not find Clark. He was arrested Jan. 25 under the name `Oral Merchant` while trying to enter Canada from Jamaica.
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