A Bermudian drug runner was slapped with a 16 month prison sentence on Wednesday after being caught off the coast of St. Maarten with millions of dollars worth of marijuana on his boat.

Winston Franklin Robinson, 60, formerly of Mangrove Bay, was arrested on June 25 with five other men after the Dutch Coast Guard intercepted his boat 35 nautical miles from the small, related Dutch Antilles island of Saba.

Prosecutor Paul Moorj had asked that the six men be sentenced to two years in prison on charges of transporting and attempting to import the 10,400 pounds of marijuana found on the boat to St. Maarten, a Dutch-governed Caribbean island.

In sentencing, Judge Dick van den Brink said a substantial part of the indictment could not be proven, according to an article in the St. Maarten Daily Herald.

Over the course of Robinson's trial two weeks ago, the court heard that his boat - Carl Senior - broke down and had been drifting for four days before a US Coast Guard cutter picked a radio signal from the vessel and alerted Dutch authorities.

A Dutch naval vessel was dispatched and four men were arrested aboard the Carl Senior which was found drifting and piled high with 142 bales of the drug.

Robinson and another man were arrested shortly after on a dinghy having headed out to sea in search of help.

On sentencing, the judge said the prosecution had not proved the drugs were intended for St. Maarten, where they would carry a street value of less that $2 million. In Bermuda, the street value of the marijuana would be more than $200 million.

Robinson claimed the drugs were destined for Antigua and that he had picked them up off the coast of Venezuela or Colombia - he was uncertain which country - after being approached in a Curacao bar by a man who asked if he wanted to make some money.

Judge van den Brink also said prosecutors' claim that the marijuana had been transported, exported and transited when the six were apprehended could not be proved.

In the end, he sentenced the men only for possession of the drugs. All six men received 16 months sentences, less time served.

Judge van den Brink ordered that the Carl Senior, a 48-foot wooden fishing vessel, be turned over to St. Maarten authorities.

After Robinson completes his prison time in St. Maarten's House of Detention he will be deported immediately.

The Royal Gazette was told he has asked to be deported to Australia as he has no desire to return to Bermuda. As he is a Bermudian citizen, however, he will be returned to the Island.

Bermuda Police told The Royal Gazette they had been watching Robinson's movements for many years as he was thought to be tied to rings running drugs to the Island.

Over the course of the Kirk Roberts trial this summer, it emerged that Robinson was aboard the sailboat which delivered drugs to Roberts in December 2000.

Roberts supported both Robinson and a German sailboat owner through monetary wire transfers as they sailed the Caribbean in search of drugs for months, the Roberts' jury heard.

Roberts received a ten year prison terms for conspiracy to import 200 pounds of the drug to Bermuda.