Jamaican Ganja On Cruise
Ship Gets US Couple Year In Cayman Island Jail
(Ed. note: Americans marijuana users should
learn from the mistakes of others, even if the Cayman Islands do not.)July 28,
1998
From Reuters
US COUPLE GETS YEAR IN CAYMAN’S JAIL ON DRUG CHARGE
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, July 28 (Reuters)-
A Cayman Islands judge on Tuesday sentenced a U.S. couple to one
year in prison for possession of marijuana after they brought the drug into the British
colony on a cruise ship.
James Fletcher Whaley, 25, and his wife, Ashley, 29, of Montgomery, Alabama, were
taking a Caribbean cruise in early July when their ship, the Majesty of the Seas, docked
in the Cayman Islands.
A routine search by Cayman Islands customs agents and dogs
revealed two large bags of marijuana in the Whaleys’ cabin, authorities said.
The couple said they had bought the marijuana in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and claimed it was
for an employee of the ship, who was never identified.
In court, a Cayman Islands official said the practice of U.S.
cruise ship passengers buying marijuana in Jamaica to smuggle into the United States had
become so common that his department routinely used drug-sniffing dogs when cruise ships
coming from Jamaica called at Grand Cayman.
The Whaleys will join about 15 other U.S. and Canadian nationals serving prison
sentences in the Cayman Islands for trying the same method of smuggling marijuana or
cocaine bought in Jamaica.
Supported