Last Updated on July 18, 2020, 8:13 PM AST by Anthony Morris
A Haitian judge has sentenced two Mexican nationals, 38-year-old Juan Jose Avila and 43-year-old Andres Vargas Flores to five years imprisonment on Wednesday after the court convicted them of drug trafficking.
A fine of 2 million Haitian gourdes each was also levied on them.
Both Avila and Flores were arrested in November last year in Haiti’s southern seaport city of Les Cayes, hours after they crash-landed in the rural town of Saint Jean du Sud, which is about 24 kilometres, or a 45-minute drive, away from Les Cayes.
They told the local residents who surrounded the plane after the crash landing that they experienced trouble with the engine while flying over the region. The local police found weapons, gallons of gasoline and thousands of U.S. dollars inside the plane.
Judge Robert Jourdain, who gave the punishment in the case of these men, pronounced that both men, pilots by profession, are found guilty of drug trafficking. He said that the Haitian government would confiscate the plane on which they had come to Haiti.
The men were clean-shaven, handcuffed, wearing polo shirts and black face masks as they stood in court to hear the final verdict.
Ronald Richmond, the chief prosecutor for Les Cayes, said that the men told him that they had flown to Haiti from Belize and they were headed to Venezuela, where they were told to pick up 900 kilos of cocaine which they would then transport to Guatemala.
Richmond said that the men were working for a Mexican drug trafficker named “Lubo.” They loaded the plane with gallons of gasoline so that they could avoid having to land to refuel.
The prosecutor said that the men told him that they had been paid $10,000 in cash for expenses. Upon returning to Mexico, they would receive an additional amount of $150,000 U.S. dollars each.
Richmond said that the men had used their expense money to pay off some of the residents who helped them flee the crash scene and brought them to a house located in Les Cayes where the pilots could wait for the driver who would help them leave Haiti.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
