Police officers in the United States of America who arrested dancehall artiste, Buju Banton, claim they have him on tape going as far as tasting cocaine he was allegedly attempting to buy.

Buju, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was snared in a sting operation that began on December 7, according to the criminal complaint affidavit filed in the United States District Court in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, last Friday.

Myrie is charged along with Ian Thomas and James Mack, also known as Spencer Clarke, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

According to the complaint signed by the lead agent and witnessed by US Magistrate Elizabeth Jenkins, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and officers from the Sarasota Police Department have the entertainer on audio and video negotiating the deal and tasting the product as he and his associates allegedly sought to close a deal to obtain the illegal drugs at a DEA-controlled undercover warehouse in Florida.

Sometime past 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, federal agents swooped down and arrested Ian Thomas and James Mack at the Florida warehouse. Thomas and Mack were about to complete what they thought was the purchase of five kilograms of cocaine. The agents and police officers seized about US$125,000 and a handgun.

It was the culmination of the operation that began, they say, with Myrie, and a telephone call he received from a police informant, who then tipped off the special agents that a deal was about to go down.

received information

According to the information contained in the eight-page affidavit in which the events leading to Myrie's arrest were outlined, the DEA special agent whose signature appears on the affidavit, on Tuesday, December 8, along with other agents from the DEA Tampa District and officers from the Sarasota Police Department, received information from an informant that Myrie and his associates wanted to buy "kilogram amounts" of cocaine in Sarasota, Florida.

The agents were told that the informant had spoken to Myrie by phone on Monday, December 7, and during the conversation, Myrie advised the informant that he would be travelling to meet with the informant in Sarasota to continue negotiations in a bid to obtain cocaine.

On Tuesday, the informant called Myrie and during that conversation, it is alleged that the deejay agreed to meet with the informant later that day in Sarasota. At 12:45 p.m., DEA agents met with the informant and outfitted the informant with audio and video equipment.

Under surveillance, the informant then proceeded to the Tropicana de Havana restaurant in Sarasota, and entered a restaurant at 5911 Fruitville Road in Sarasota. Three minutes later, agents observed a black male, later identified as Myrie, along with a man identified as Ian Thomas, and an unidentified female, alight from a silver Land Rover with licence plates JAH ONE, and walk towards the restaurant.

About a minute later, police officers alleged that they observed Myrie and the unidentified female enter the restaurant, where they met the informant. Thomas returned to and entered the Land Rover. Myrie is said to have then met with Thomas outside the restaurant before both with the informant inside the restaurant without the female.

During the meeting, audio and video equipment recorded the informant instructing Myrie and his associate to follow the source to an alternate location where they would resume negotiations. At 2:15 p.m., the police then observed the informant and Myrie enter the informant's car while Thomas and the female entered the Land Rover and departed the area. They were followed by the surveillance units.

undercover warehouse

About 15 minutes later, the two vehicles, the one driven by the informant and the Land Rover, arrived at the undercover warehouse. The persons exited the vehicles and entered the warehouse, where they met with an undercover officer posing as the potential vendor. The undercover officer is alleged to have shown Myrie and Thomas a compartmentalised vehicle that contained 20kgs of cocaine. Thomas then approached the vehicle and after observing the hidden compartment, removed a kilogram of cocaine and placed it on a nearby table for inspection.

He used a knife to cut open the package. It is alleged that he and Myrie began to inspect the cocaine. Thomas, the affidavit said, handed Myrie the knife and he was observed wiping the blade with his finger and then placing his finger in his mouth as if tasting it. Negotiations continued until about 2:50 p.m. when the parties entered their respective vehicles and departed the area.

The next day, December 9, at about 1 p.m., the informant contacted special agents on the case and told them that Thomas had called him earlier and that he wanted to meet later that day to continue negotiating to buy 15kg of cocaine. At 4:40 p.m., the informant was again outfitted with audio and video equipment and then left to meet with Thomas at an Applebee's restaurant in Sarasota.

A little more than 20 minutes later, Thomas was seen exiting a dark-coloured BMW with Florida plates in Applebee's parking lot and then entering the restaurant, where he met with the informant. Just over 10 minutes later, the informant called the special agents to tell them that Thomas had indicated that the organisation he represented wanted first to buy 5kg of cocaine to see if there would be any problems. Additional amounts of cocaine would subsequently be bought if there were no problems. The informant also told the agents that there was another associate of the organisation in another vehicle in the parking lot and that that associate was in possession of US$125,000, which would be used to buy the five kilograms of cocaine.

From there, everything went according to plan for the agents, and the officers from the Sarasota Police Department, and downhill for the Gargamel, who now faces the possibility of spending years incarcerated in a US federal prison if he is convicted.