Second cleaner claims waiter was leader of drug plot onboard cruise ship
A second cruise ship employee admitted involvement in a cocaine-smuggling ring and pointed the finger at a man who’s on trial accused of being the ringleader.According to Kelnile Bushay, 35, from St Vincent, Jamaican waiter Ricardo Stewart arranged for passengers from the Explorer of the Seas to pick up cocaine in St Martin.He alleged that Mr Stewart intended the 3.9 kg of drugs valued at up to $735,375 to be dropped off in Bermuda.The plot was blown when workmen discovered the narcotics stashed in the vessel’s disco bar on June 6, 2010 while the ship was en route to the Island, and the authorities were alerted.Mr Stewart, 32, from Jamaica, is now on trial accused of heading the conspiracy to import the cocaine to Bermuda.Supreme Court heard earlier this week from Adrian Morris, a cleaner on the cruise ship who like Mr Stewart and Mr Bushay was arrested during the investigation.Mr Morris was caught on CCTV cameras taking the bag of drugs from outside his cabin and leaving them under a seat in the disco bar.The bag was found by upholsterers who were refurbishing the bar area.Mr Morris, a married Jamaican father-of-two, told the Police he was part of a smuggling plot headed by Mr Stewart.He told the jury the same thing when he gave evidence for the Crown earlier this week. He alleged that Mr Stewart used guests to bring drugs onto the ship, and staff to move them around once onboard.He said he was offered $1,500 to move the drugs around the ship.Mr Morris added that he had admitted his role in the crime and was sent to Westgate Correctional Facility.He named Mr Bushay, a fellow cleaner, as another ship employee involved in the plot.Yesterday, the jury viewed a videotape of an interview conducted with Mr Bushay after Bermuda Police arrested him.He also named Mr Stewart as the leader of the drugs-smuggling enterprise on the Explorer of the Seas.“The drugs they pick up from St Martin by guests [who] brought them onboard and give them to a crew member,” he told detectives.“The crew member then takes it and stashes it for that cruise, approximately four or five days.”Mr Bushay said he’d participated in moving drugs around the ship himself, and the payment was $2,000.Of Mr Stewart he said: “He’s the connection between the person that brings it on and the person that picks it up.”He said he’d heard of drugs being imported to Bermuda in this fashion on a previous occasion in late 2009.Mr Bushay is not on trial, with Mr Stewart the only defendant in the current case.The trial also heard from Detective Constable Walter Jackson, who searched Mr Stewart’s cabin when he was arrested.He found US $4,900 stashed in the bottom of a box of laundry detergent in the bathroom.Another Detective Constable, Alickson Severin, said St Martin is known as one of the transit points for large quantities of cocaine that emanate from Colombia.The drugs are then distributed across the world.The cocaine seized from the Explorer of the Seas had an average purity of 47.5 percent and would net between $424,500 and $735,375 on the streets of Bermuda, depending on whether it was sold wholesale or retail, he explained.Mr Stewart, of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, denies conspiring with Mr Morris and others not before the courts to import cocaine, and the case continues.