Innocent Bowie man spent months in jail for bringing honey back to U.S. through BWI
You gotta wonder what kind of morons they have working in law enforcement these days. How can they look at a jar of honey and think that it's liquid meth?
Everyone involved in this case should be required to serve at least 82 days in prison as compensation for what they did to this guy.
Apparently, some drug-sniffing dog was involved, too.
It is believed that he may have been stereotyped because of his race.
Leon Haughton likes honey in his tea. Which is why during his Christmas visit to relatives in Jamaica, he made his regular stop and bought three bottles from a favorite roadside stand before heading home to Maryland.
It was a routine purchase for him until he landed at the airport in Baltimore. Customs officers detained Haughton and police arrested him, accusing him of smuggling in not honey, but liquid meth.
You gotta wonder what kind of morons they have working in law enforcement these days. How can they look at a jar of honey and think that it's liquid meth?
Haughton spent nearly three months in jail before all charges were dropped and two rounds of law enforcement lab tests showed no controlled substances in the bottles.
By then, Haughton, who according to his lawyer had no criminal record, had lost both of his jobs as a cleaner and a construction worker.
“They messed up my life,” Haughton said. “I want the world to know that the system is not right. If I didn’t have strong people around me, they would probably leave me in jail. You’re lost in the system.”
Everyone involved in this case should be required to serve at least 82 days in prison as compensation for what they did to this guy.
“Someone dropped the ball somewhere,” Haughton’s lawyer Terry Morris said. “An innocent man spent 82 days in jail for bringing honey into the United States.”
Apparently, some drug-sniffing dog was involved, too.
Police in charging documents said a K-9 named Beny conducted a “random scan” and alerted to possible drugs.
“Inside the bag were three large plastic bottles labeled as ‘honey’ of suspected liquid methamphetamine,” charging documents said.
It is believed that he may have been stereotyped because of his race.
Haughton and Morris contend he was stereotyped because of his race. Authorities, Haughton’s lawyer said, questioned him about “a big Jamaican gang and drug dealing conspiracy.”
“‘I’m 100 percent sure I don’t have drugs,’” Haughton recalled insisting to agents. “‘I only have honey.’”