Bahamasair Agent and Passenger Jailed for Drug Smuggling

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – A Bahamasair ticket agent and a passenger have both been jailed for their roles in a plot to smuggle cocaine from Inagua into New Providence. 

Nerico Bowleg, 24, helped Duedanae Cox, 41,  get a carryon bag that contained 32 pounds of drugs, worth $240,000, bypass the security checkpoint at the Inagua airport on May 6, 2022.

Cox put the bag in the overhead bin and was arrested by police officers at the Lynden International Airport.

In her testimony, Cox said that she had been asked to carry the bag by a man from whom she occasionally bought marijuana.

However, she said that she didn’t know that the bag contained cocaine. 

Bowleg said that he was asked by the same man to help Cox get the bag on the flight without it being scanned by security screeners.

He claimed that he thought the bag contained fish.

Magistrate Samuel McKinney convicted Bowleg and Cox of conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to supply and drug possession with intent to supply.

They were sentenced to two and half years in prison on the conspiracy charge and two years on the possession charge. The sentences will be served at the same time.