Drug smuggler on parole jailed for 12 years

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Jan 27, CMC  — A 47-year-old former construction company boss caught importing cocaine while on probation for heroin trafficking has been jailed for 12 years after being convicted by a Supreme Court jury.
Rudolph Travers Clarke was jailed for seven years in the United States in 2012 for his part in a US$3.9 million heroin importation plot, which originated in St Maarten, to bring drugs into Bermuda.
Clarke was brought back to Bermuda to serve the last part of his sentence at the maximum-security Westgate Correctional Facility and released on parole in April 2014.
But within months of his release, he was detained by police in Hamilton after picking up a parcel from a courier company containing 445 grams of cocaine.
Prosecutors told the court that the drugs could fetch up to $117,000 if sold on the streets of Bermuda.
Clarke fled the island, but he was discovered in the Bahamas and extradited back to Bermuda last June.
He was convicted this week by a jury of conspiracy to import a controlled drug and possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.