Buju Banton Found Guilty in Florida Court .... comeuppance ??

From Go Jamaica

Jamaica's reggae superstar Buju Banton, real name Mark Myrie, has been found guilty of three cocaine related charges.

A 12 member jury today February 21st around minutes after 2pm delivered the verdict in the Sam M Gibbons building in Tampa which houses the United States Middle District Court, Florida Division.
Buju was found guilty on conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine.
He was also found guilty for attempting to possess five kilograms or more of cocaine.

He was found guilty for aiding and abetting others in using a communication facility in the commission of a felony.

He was found not guilty for knowingly and intentionally possessing a firearm in furtherance of and during the course of a drug-trafficking crime.

Buju was tried last week (the week before the 21st) on four charges.

Buju throughout the maintained he is innocent of the charges saying he play no part in any conspiracy to possess cocaine.

In denying the claims against him, Buju, though his attorney David Oscar Markus, argued that the artiste never became a willing participant of the cocaine conspiracy charged in the superseding indictment.

The defence said tasting the cocaine, talking about cocaine and simply being present at the warehouse is not sufficient to find Buju guilty of the crimes charged.

This trial, which began on February 14, was the second attempt of the US government to convict the Jamaican artiste. A first trial last year was declared a mistrial after jurors failed to arrive at a unanimous position.
Buju was arrested on December 10, 2009.

His long-time friend Ian Thomas and a James Mack were arrested the same day when they attempted to by cocaine from undercover detectives in a Florida warehouse. Thomas and Mack pleaded guilty but Buju denied the charges. He said he decided to fight in federal court because he knows he is innocent.

ENDS

Notes:

Even after all the evidence presented and the clear cut case of his involvement in drug activity persons still believe the gay community had something to do with Mark Myrie's woes. It's just beyond me sometimes how we love to find someone to blame for things even when the reasons are staring you in the face. Some persons went as far as to call the judge and jurors faggots because the ruling didn't come out in their favour. There are those sensible amongst us though who warn other artists not to get into questionable dealings with people you can't verify or who are shady. The Drug Enforcement Agency as far as I am concerned like many other American law enforcement arms cannot be twisted like our systems here, no fiasco, no payola, no taking sides just straight justice. Interesting play on words given the circumstances.

The big question for me out of all this is why was Buju Banton even having a conversation with a virtual stranger? a man or men you never met before and all of a sudden you happen to see them on a flight and develop such a chummy link in such a short time? I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it now, furthermore Rastafarians are not to be even seen having or even dealing with the "white lady"/cocaine let alone tasting it as was alleged by the Drug Enforcement Agency that they have Buju Banton on tape sampling the stash.

This is a sad day in our entertainment industry though despite his "change" to the Rastafarian faith it seems there were dark things going on under the guise of that change and it has come to haunt him. There are many in the gay community who are rejoicing for a different reason as we may know the whole "Boom Bye Bye" message and what it has come to mean these years. Many say he deserves his comeuppance as he refused to withdraw the offending song even after strong pressure from the american gay rights activists and the Stop Murder Music campaign and that meeting in San Francisco while he was on tour turned out to be a public relations stunt. More here as well.

I think we have to be on the look out for the crack pots who have been duped into believing it was the LGBT community who set him up referring to some invisible Babylon system that is oppressive to black people, The United States legal system is not as screwed up as ours so one doesn't just squirm your way through thinking celebrity will save you worse yet when you are not a citizen. I am also sure the apologists are going to go on some campaign now to prove these unfounded allegations.

Buju Banton got himself in his own mess, one should also take note not once was there any gay activist protest, public rant or any such thing by or near the courthouse to make him out to be evil, we all waited and the verdict is in. If the activists were after him they would have targeted his every move within the United States as unlike Jamaica freedom of speech and assembly are utilized to their fullest with effective results. I strongly suspect that he was being watched by the authorities from the moment he delivered that song "Driver", could it be a case of cock mouth ketch cock?

In a Gleaner report on February 16th it was clear to many that Buju Banton was up to the game as on the day when he was arrested on December 8th he was said to have thanked the informant (he didn't know yet) for presenting the deal to him: "On the way to the warehouse on December 8, two days before Buju was arrested, the superstar thanked the informer for setting up the deal.

"You have given me the opportunity to make myself again," Buju said to Johnson in an audio recording.

He complained to the informant that he did not make any money on his last tour and that gay-rights organisation, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, "is trying to run me under".

As taken from the transcripts themselves in the conversation between himself and the informant (Buju didn't know at the time) he seems clearly interested in doing business, get the full 62 paged document here: http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2010/PDFs/banton.pdf he referred to snitches and that he didn't event trust the privacy of the very conversation he was having then with the man named CS.

Peace and tolerance

H

EXtrazzzzz: here is a parody video of some of his songs put in the form of him coming out, al least there is some humour in all this tragedy.