Flippa busted! Int'l drug-trafficking network dismantled

UNITED STATES law-enforcement authorities have charged that Jamaican entertainer Andrew Davis, more popularly known as Flippa Mogla, was the leader of an international drug-trafficking and money-laundering network that operated between Kingston and the American states of New Jersey and California.

"Andrew Davis allegedly directed his organisation's drug operations from various locations in Jamaica, New Jersey, and California," the New Jersey attorney general's office alleged in a statement announcing that the network had been dismantled.

Flippa was arrested in Los Angeles, California, on September 16 and extradited last Tuesday to New Jersey, where he was charged for being the leader of a narcotics trafficking network, the distribution of cocaine, money laundering, and conspiracy.

His brother, 22-year-old Kemar Davis, who resides in California, was also arrested and charged, along with seven other alleged accomplices, in March this year, when the "takedown of the Davis Organisation began".

All nine accused have been offered bail.

OPERATION NEXT DAY AIR

The charges came at the end of a two-and-a-half-year joint investigation, code-named Operation Next Day Air, the New Jersey State Police reported.

"In total, detectives recovered more than 26 kilograms of cocaine, worth approximately US$780,000, two handguns, and more than US$600,000 in cash," according to a release from the New Jersey police.

"Although significant seizures on their own, this investigation has revealed that these seizures are but a small percentage of the total amount of cocaine brought into New Jersey by Andrew Davis' drug-trafficking organisation," the release noted.

John Hoffman, New Jersey's acting attorney general, said: "With this multi-agency investigation, we have stopped shipment on this drug syndicate."

HIT RADAR IN 2011

The New Jersey police reported that the 34-year-old entertainer landed on their radar in March 2011, after agents from a local task force seized two packages from a mail facility - each allegedly containing four kilograms of cocaine - that were reportedly destined for Flippa and a woman identified as Marsha Bernard.

"Investigators determined that after [Flippa] returned to Jamaica in 2012, [his] brother, Kemar Davis … took over the operation and sent large quantities of drugs from California to New Jersey, in close consultation with Andrew Davis and Marsha Bernard," investigators charged.

"Once the drugs arrived in New Jersey, Marsha Bernard and others received the shipments of cocaine for further distribution throughout New Jersey. Bernard … collected the money from the buyers [and] would then handle the drug proceeds as they were sent back to Andrew Davis in Jamaica and to Kemar Davis in California," they further alleged.