Buju Banton sentenced to ten years in prison

June 23rd, 2011 ProAkaDjStamma

Popular Jamaican Reggae artiste, Mark Myrie, more commonly known as Buju Banton received a 10 year sentence this morning in a Florida courtroom.

United States magistrate, James Moody handed down the ruling in the Sam M Gibbons US Court in Tampa, Florida within the last two hours. The internationally acclaimed artiste will now serve his time the FCI prison facility in Miami.

Buju calmly accepted the verdict in front of a packed courtroom which included members of the artistes family, manager Traci McGregor & his close friend and fellow Reggae artiste, Wayne Wonder. Other artistes & friends such as Delly Ranks & Gramps Morgan attempted to enter the courtroom but were turned away due to the crowd & the fact Judge Moody had already been seated around quarter to 9am.

Buju was convicted this past February of conspiracy to organize a drug deal in a police controlled warehouse in Florida in December 2009. This followed a mistrial that occurred following the first trial proceedings in 2010 & also followed co-conspirators Ian Thomas and James Mack pleading guilty after being held for attempting to purchase cocaine from undercover law enforcement officials. American federal government officials based their case off video & wiretapping evidence which caught Buju tasting cocaine & talking about possible sales points. The gun related charge of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug offense against Buju was dropped.

he ten year sentence was meted out despite thousands of letters from family, along with Reggae musician, Stephen Marley & American actor Danny Glover, both close friends of Buju. Now Buju will retreat to the FCI prison facility; a federal prison where he will not be allowed to record any songs or new material.

Buju is known for countless hit songs such as Untold Stories, Destiny, I Wanna Be Loved and Optimistic Soul. He won his first Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2011 for his 2010 album, Before The Dawn & most recently released a single last week on the Jah Army Riddim entitled Dont Worry.

By Jodee Brown
Jamaican Pop Culture Examiner