US businessman to seek bail next week after arrest in massive gun find
Published:Wednesday | November 15, 2023 | 12:09 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
An American businessman, who allegedly purchased five of the weapons that were found in a massive gun find in a warehouse at the wharf in Kingston in March last year, is to make a bail application on November 23 in the Gun Court.
The 32-year-old defendant, Fitzroy Johnson, who resides in Atlanta, Georgia, was arrested at the Norman Manley International Airport, on his arrival in the island on November 3.
Johnson, who is charged with conspiracy to illegally import guns and ammunition, is the third foreigner to have been arrested in the illegal gun find, in which 2,000 rounds of ammunition were also discovered.
According to investigators, Johnson had entered into an arrangement and paid for five of the illegal guns.
However, on Monday when he appeared in court, his lawyer, Kemar Robinson, requested a date for a bail hearing and the said date was fixed.
Johnson was subsequently remanded.
In the meantime, four other persons who are charged in the matter, including the alleged mastermind and the other two foreigners, had their bails extended to return to court on December 14 for a plea and case management hearing.
A trial date was also scheduled for May 13 of next year.
Godfrey Martin, otherwise called ‘Rev’, a St Elizabeth businessman who is alleged to be the mastermind, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to illegally import guns and conspiracy to illegally import ammunition.
Sherilyn McLean, the girlfriend of the 51-year-old businessman, was also charged in the matter.
Similarly charged are two United States nationals – Jermaine Baker, a 36-year-old chef of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and 42-year-old Dervan Brown, a construction worker of Bronx, New York. Brown was shot and killed in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on November 6.
The four were charged following the illegal gun find on March 4, 2022. Three rifles, 18 handguns, and 2,216 rounds of ammunition were discovered after customs officers detected a suspicious package and summoned the Contraband Enforcement Team.