Ty Lawes jailed six years for importing 16.86 kg of cannabis resin aged 17
Ty Lawes was sentenced to six years in Bermuda's Supreme Court on 7 October 2026 for importing 16,855.4 grams of cannabis resin through LF Wade International Airport on 20 July 2023, when he was 17. The judge said the sentence would have exceeded ten years had he committed the offence as an adult, even with a guilty plea.
🇧🇲 LF Wade International Airport, St. George's · Bermuda
Ty Lawes, 21, was jailed for six years on 7 October 2026 for importing cannabis resin
into Bermuda as a 17-year-old.[1][2]He arrived at LF Wade International Airport on
BA flight 159 on 20 July 2023, and customs officers found the resin concealed in items
in his baggage during a secondary inspection triggered by a canine alert.[1]
The seizure weighed 16,855.4 grams, with a street value of up to $3,371,080.[1]Born
on 25 August 2005, Lawes turned 18 almost exactly five weeks after the offence and was
not placed in court until 25 February 2025, 19 months after his arrest.[1]He
pleaded guilty on 27 July 2026, after a trial date had already been set.[1]
Puisne Judge Alan Richards said an adult convicted after trial would have received 15
to 18 years, and even on a guilty plea more than ten.[1]Following guidance from
England and Wales on offenders who cross a significant age threshold, he set the
starting point at the date of the offence: nine years, close to the ten-year maximum a
Family Court could have imposed on him as a young person.[1]He discounted that by
about a fifth for the guilty plea and a tenth for the delay before Lawes first appeared
in court, and called six years the least sentence he could properly impose.[1]
The judge noted that Lawes had no previous convictions and that young people are
selected as couriers because they are less likely to arouse suspicion.[1]Time spent
in custody counts toward the sentence.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The ruling gives a street value of up to $3,371,080 without naming a currency; Bermuda's dollar is pegged to the US dollar.
The ruling does not identify who supplied the resin or arranged the courier; it notes that offences like this usually involve people besides the courier.
Neither side sought a pre-sentence report, and the judge said he did not know how a Family Court would have handled the case.
Lawes was not placed in court until 25 February 2025, 19 months after his arrest; the judge called the delay regrettable but not great.
No photograph of the hearing or the seizure was published with these accounts.
On 7 October 2026 Magistrate Craig Attridge sentenced Silamon Safi, 26, of California, to two years for importing 1,336.2 grams of cannabis into St George's on 18 April and for possessing it with intent to supply. A three-month term for possessing oxycodone runs at the same time, with time in custody since April counted.
Former chef Michael McKenna, 54, of Toronto, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison on 9 April 2026 after pleading guilty to importing 13.88 kilogrammes of cannabis in a suitcase at LF Wade International Airport on 13 July 2025; the judge said a trial would have brought ten years.
Arrested 1Charged 1Cannabis 13.88 kgPrison 6 years 6 months
Moses Adejumo, a 23-year-old Canadian student, was sentenced to eight months in prison in Bermuda after admitting importing 885 grams of cannabis worth about $44,000 from Toronto in May 2014. He had denied the charges at a first hearing on 22 May and was remanded in custody; he pleaded guilty on 5 June and was jailed with time served counted.
Shaniqwa O'Brien and Desiree Burrows were charged in Bermuda's Magistrates' Court on 1 February 2011 with conspiring to import cannabis resin from Jamaica and possessing it with intent to supply, and each was released on $10,000 bail. They pleaded guilty and were jailed for 18 months each on 15 February over 282 grams of resin valued at $28,300.
