Traffickers used sneakers to smuggle 3kg of cocaine

| 06/04/2023 | 26 Comments
Cayman Islands Law Courts, Cayman News Service

(CNS): Two women and one man from Suriname began serving lengthy prison terms Wednesday following their conviction for importing around 3kgs of cocaine hidden in the soles of ten pairs of sneakers in suitcases they brought to Cayman in October. The trio travelled from Suriname through Trinidad and Jamaica, pretending not to know each other. But they raised the suspicion of customs officers on arrival at Owen Roberts International Airport.

Sheron Ann Moses (65), a mother and grandmother, was handed a sentence of six years and seven months. Onica Violetta Barclay (43), Moses’ daughter, was given the longest term at nine years, and her boyfriend, Vidol Anfernie La Fleur (26), was given a sentence of eight years and three months. All sentences included discounts for their guilty pleas.

The three were arrested at the airport after arousing the suspicions of customs officers because of the route they took to get here, plus the fact that they were all from Suriname and staying at the same hotel but had travelled as individuals. Moses had even cleared customs and was in a taxi outside the airport before Barclay and La Fleur were stopped, which led officers to call Moses back into the terminal.

When their bags were searched, customs officers found five pairs of sneakers in Moses’ suitcase with over 1.1 kilos of cocaine packed into the soles. She also had a small amount of cocaine hidden up her anus, which she told the officers was for her own use.

Barclay was carrying two pairs of sneakers with just under 700 grams of cocaine in the soles, and Vidol had more than 1.2 kilos of the drug packed into the soles of three pairs of shoes.

Although they each gave different, conflicting and inconsistent stories, Barclay appeared to be the ringleader. She admitted getting $3,000 from a family friend by the name of “George One Foot” in exchange for taking the sneakers to the Cayman Islands. In an effort to cooperate, Barclay gave to the authorities the contact details she had for the man who had supplied the shoes containing the drugs. But she said she didn’t have the contact details for the person who was supposed to collect the drugs when they arrived here.

As she handed down her sentencing ruling Wednesday, Justice Cheryll Richards detailed how she had arrived at the different sentences for each individual given the different roles they played, the quantities they carried and their circumstances.


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Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (26)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t “One Foot” the name of the hitchhiker so many people have picked up by Prospect, let him drive their car, and after he crashes the car he then runs away before police can arrive on the scene?

    10
    • Anonymous says:

      No, that’s Budoo aka Blacks. For a Few Dollars More, he sometimes shoots people as well. One Foot is his mother’s cousin outside child from Trinidad.

    • Anonymous says:

      That was Buju. He One Foot cousin.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Sneaky.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Where is the immediate deportation order when they are released?

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  4. Anonymous says:

    no drug sniffing dogs for luggage in cayman???

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  5. WBW Czar. says:

    There goes my weekend…

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Blame the dirty nasty users. No one is forcing them to start doing drugs. Dealers are providing a service… supply and demand.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You must be a dirty nasty drug dealer or a relative to one.

      Perhaps you should think of the damage drugs do your fellow humans before being so defiant and flippant.

      I hope you aren’t Caymanian.

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      • Anonymous says:

        They aren’t wrong. It takes both buy-side user market, and sell-side dealers, gang enforcers, mules with product in their butts to make this illicit supply chain happen. They are all a component of this industry.

  7. Anonymous says:

    If a guy called One Foot is giving you pairs of trainers to take to Cayman, you’re an idiot 🤣

    42
  8. Not A EZ Road says:

    Whats funny is they said the route they toke to get to cayman. Thats what caught there attention that dont seem correct as 90% person traveling from that part the world unless having a USA visa has to go the route to get to cayman. Seem they just got lucky and made it seem the officer picked up on somthing. Hence one was already outsise. But great they got them lets try get the other 20 that walks thru.

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  9. offshore trading says:

    Thankfully the officers caught these bandits, its very troubling that one of them were able to get through customs and was waiting on a taxi!

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    • Anonymous says:

      If he’d made it through to the taxi and continued his journey, most of his ‘earnings’ would be going to the extortionate cab fare.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Nasty dirty drug dealers. Can we somehow make them pay restitution to the Cayman Islands for the costs imposed on our legal system and the costs of jailing them.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, 1:39, when we impose the same costs on our own Caymanian “ nasty dirty drug dealers”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The upstream Cayman resident dealers and customers should be held responsible for the entire societal cost of this industry, including supply chain mules.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Coke is produced in Central and South America… Why the hell would you smuggle it here all the way from Suriname? They should be given double sentences for being idiots.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Pretty sure Suriname is in South America.

      This a very interesting story just to smuggle 6lbs of coke.
      That’s not enough for one person in Cayman.
      What about the guys bringing in hundreds & thousands, why do they get off on just a few years?

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      • Anonymous says:

        6lbs not enough for one person…. sounds like you need going a bit overboard on the nose candy.

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    • Donkey. 4 Real. says:

      look at the atlas bumba!

    • Anonymous says:

      Suriname is in South America. Who is the idiot here?

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