Tourist fined over cannabis in cruise ship cabin
A 43-year-old tourist received a hefty fine for importation after cannabis was found in his cruise ship cabin.
Edward John Molinari, from New York, admitted in Magistrates’ Court to the April 11 offence of importing drugs and drug possession.
The court heard from Crown counsel Larissa Burgess that shortly before noon, after the ship from the US arrived at Dockyard, Bermuda customs and police searched Molinari’s cabin based on information they had received.
A sniffer dog found seven homemade cigarettes in the room’s safe, plus a partially-smoked eighth, containing cannabis of an estimated street value of $178.
Molinari asked Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner for leniency, saying the drugs had not belonged to him.
He said: “I found it in the room. I have three little kids, and I locked it in the safe so they wouldn’t find it. I should have told the authorities.”
Molinari added that cannabis had been in use “all over the boat”.
Mr Warner fined him $3,000, to be paid immediately.
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- Was the Senior Magistrate right not to give a criminal conviction to a Harvard professor caught bringing cannabis into Bermuda?
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Published Apr 12, 2011 at 12:41 pm (Updated Apr 12, 2011 at 12:40 pm)