Moses Adejumo, a 23-year-old Canadian university student, was sentenced to eight months in prison after admitting importing cannabis worth about $40,000 into Bermuda.[1] He arrived on an Air Canada flight from Toronto in May 2014, and customs officers sent him for a secondary inspection at LF Wade International Airport.[1] In his single black suitcase they found two brown packages hidden under the cloth lining, which analysis showed held 885 grams of cannabis.[1]
Bermuda customs charged him with importing more than $40,000 worth of cannabis.[2] When he first appeared in Bermuda’s Magistrates’ Court on 22 May, Adejumo denied importing cannabis and possessing it with intent to supply.[2] Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner remanded him in custody and set a trial date for 5 June.[2] The charge set the drugs’ street value at $44,000.[2]
On 5 June Adejumo pleaded guilty to the importation charge, and prosecutor Takiyah Burgess entered no evidence on the possession charge.[1] Defence lawyer Arion Mapp said Adejumo was a vulnerable young man who had been offered the opportunity to bring the drugs in by an unnamed person.[1] Mapp asked for a psychiatric report before sentence, but Warner refused it, saying “at the end of the day it is blatant importation”.[1]
Warner sentenced him to eight months’ imprisonment, taking into account the time he had already spent in custody.[3] The court heard that the cannabis had an estimated street value of $44,250.[3] Adejumo, who did not speak during the proceedings, never revealed who he imported the drugs for, and his mother and aunt flew to Bermuda from Nigeria for the hearing.[3] Warner jailed him for eight months, taking his time in custody into account.[4]
