KENT, UK - A wholesaler who was charged for involvement in the smuggling of more than 100 kg (about 220 pounds) of 91% pure cocaine has been cleared of all charges.
David Mais, 50, leaned against the glass as he received hugs and support when he was cleared of charges after just four hours of a jury deliberation, according to the UK’s Mirror.
Mais accepted a shipment that, unbeknownst to him, carried more than 200 pounds of nearly-pure cocaine wrapped in plastic bananas among actual fresh fruit in July of 2014. The contraband was valued at an estimated £24 million (about $34 million).
The heist was uncovered by officials when they followed members of a smuggling group, Galacticos Gang, one of whom worked for Mais at the time.
Daniel Valdes Jaramillo, nicknamed 'Adrian' and Mais’ employee, pled guilty to the charges.
His cohorts, Leonel de Alberto Grisales-Cuervo, nicknamed 'Messi', and Oscar Jesus Hernandez-Gonzales, alias 'Tango el Cap,' were found guilty by a jury in March of last year. The three men were sentenced to a total of 59 years in prison.
According to the report, Mais previously told police of a large shipment of bananas where confusion had occurred had made him feel it was being orchestrated by someone else, and that he had observed the corners of the boxes were blue which was something he had not seen before.
"Those bananas had been found in a pallet of a consignment of genuine bananas that had been sent on or about 21 June from Colombia," Ken Millett, Case Prosecutor, commented to the Mirror. "This consignment was part of a wider conspiracy to import large shipments of drugs into the United Kingdom using this and other methods of secretion."
It is a relief to hear that, in this case, the industry member was no more than a victim and that the situation was resolved.
