Government entrapped reggae star Buju Banton in drug deal, lawyer says
TAMPA - An attorney for Jamaican reggae singer Buju Banton says in court papers filed today he may use an entrapment defense in the Grammy nominee's federal drug case.
The defense says in court papers that confidential source who helped authorities investigate the singer pestered Banton for months to join him in a cocaine deal.
Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, is being held without bail on charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine and aiding and abetting his co-defendants in possessing a firearm during the course of the cocaine distribution.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has said in court filings that Myrie contacted a confidential informant about a possible cocaine purchase. The next day, Myrie and other men met with the informant at Sarasota's La Tropicana de Havana restaurant, where the DEA and local police had set up video and audio surveillance.
Now the defense is asking a judge to order prosecutors to disclose the identity of the confidential source, whom Myrie met on flight from Madrid to Miami in July, according to court papers filed by Myrie attorney David Oscar Markus.
"During the long international flight to Miami, the (confidential source), after softening up Mr. Myrie with small talk, began discussing cocaine," Markus writes in a court filing. "Throughout the flight, the CS tried to interest Mr. Myrie in buying cocaine. Mr. Myrie, however, was not interested."
The source, Markus alleges, is a "paid government informant."
Markus is seeking information about the source's prior criminal record and how much money the source was paid for his help in this case and others.
Markus alleges the source kept in touch with Murie and relentlessly pressured him to sell cocaine. Some of the conversations were recorded, Markus writes, and the recordings captured Myrie's "repeated attempts to putt off" the source.
"Finally, on December 8, 2009, the CS was successful in convincing Mr. Myrie to meet with him," Markus wrote. "Just to make sure Mr. Myrie attended, at 12:50 p.m. the CS called Mr. Myrie. However, the tape of the call reflects Mr. Myrie did not want to meet.
"Nonetheless, according to the complaint, Mr. Myrie attended the meeting at 2:29 p.m. at an 'undercover warehouse.' At this preliminary meeting, the CI showed Mr. Myrie and a co-defendant a brick of cocaine.
"Mr. Myrie then went back to Miami."
Two co-defendants continued to meet with the source, and the co-defendants were arrested when they met the source in a warehouse.
The DEA says in court papers that during the first warehouse meeting, an undercover law enforcement officer pulled a brick out of the 20-kilogram load of cocaine, and one of Myrie's associates sliced it open with a knife.
Myrie, according to the affidavit, "instantly wiped the blade of that knife with his finger and placed that finger in his mouth in what appeared to be an attempt to taste the cocaine."
