News

Brit pleads not guilty to drug possession - Says not cocaine but soap in stomach pellets

By PAUL A. REID, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU

A BRITISH MAN provoked stifled laughter in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday after he had told the presiding RM the substance found in plastic wrapped pellets in his stomach, was soap and not cocaine.

Keithly Greer, who was arrested at the Sangster International airport on June 22 and charged with three counts of breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act, denied the substance he had inside his stomach was drugs, despite showing a positive test for cocaine.

In court on Monday, Greer pleaded "not guilty" to the charges, telling the court, "It was not cocaine; it was soap. I know what it was and it was not cocaine."

Routine check

The court heard that Greer was arrested as he was getting ready to board an Air Jamaica flight to London, England at around 8:45 p.m., when he was stopped at the security check point for a routine check. He was then searched and interviewed and as a result taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was x-rayed and articles seen in his stomach, He was then admitted.

The court heard that over the next day or so he passed out six packages of white powdery substances resembling cocaine weighing about 56.7 grammes (2 oz).

He has been remanded in police custody until July 14 by which time the substance found in his stomach should have been tested at the government forensic lab to determine what it is.