Duo deny kidnap charges
Published:Wednesday | August 18, 2021 | 12:07 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The two St Andrew businessmen who were arrested and charged with kidnapping and thrashing a customs broker after a multimillion-dollar drug shipment, said to be theirs, was confiscated, are accusing the broker of fabricating the story about being abducted.
The men are also distancing themselves from the shipment of cocaine, which has a street value of US$363,000 – or approximately J$54.4 million – and was destined for the United Kingdom.
The accused, Ainsley Chance, 60, an operator of an investment training company, of Stillwell Road, and Wayne South, 55, property developer of Armour Heights, both in Kingston 8, categorically denied the allegations against them when they appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday.
They were each offered $250,000 bail.
Both are facing charges of assault and kidnapping, while Chance, a licensed firearm holder, is also charged with breaching the terms of gun ownership.
Bail was offered by Parish Judge Broderick Smith after the prosecution offered no objection.
The men, as part of their bail condition, are to surrender their travel documents with a stop order in place and report to the Constant Spring Police Station every Saturday.
According to police reports on August 2, a shipment of cocaine that was reportedly stashed in packages labelled jerk seasoning was intercepted at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James.
On the following day, the businessman allegedly contacted the customs broker, whom they had reportedly paid more than $400,000 to process and ship the goods and arranged to meet him at Devon House in Kingston.
The broker reportedly met with the men and went into their car but was allegedly kidnapped and taken to a location where he was tied up and beaten.
The broker, who also accused of conspiring with another broker to steal the goods, was also reportedly threatened with death by the men.
The accused men were arrested after they reportedly forced the customs broker to lead them to the home of a female customs broker, who they had also accused of plotting to steal the drug shipment.
However, attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend, who is representing both men, argued in court on Tuesday that the allegations against his clients were made out of malice.
The lawyer admitted that his client had paid over money to the complainant to send off a shipment but stated that the complainant ran off with the goods and funds and later fabricated the story against the accused. The lawyer, however, did not say what his client had paid to ship.
“We deny these allegations purporting to have occurred on August 3 and we distance ourselves from any substance found,” Townsend said.
Attorney-at-law Able-Don Foote, who also represents Chance, told the court that the allegations were without merit and insisted that his client did not use his firearm in the alleged exercise.
He, too, maintained that the allegations against his client were made out of malice.
The accused are to return to court on September 29 when the case file is expected to be completed.