News Release [print-friendly version]
January 20, 2006
Contact: DEA Public Affairs

US Convicts Reggae Music CEO of Trafficking in Enormous Quantities of Marijuana

JAN 20 -- JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (the “DEA”) and MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that a federal jury convicted Horatio Hamilton, a/k/a “Tony Dumars,” a/k/a “Desmond Hamilton,” a/k/a “Romie Robertson”, today of conspiring to traffic in over a ton of marijuana a week for approximately seven years. According to the trial evidence, Hamilton is the President and C.E.O. of L.O.Y. (“Lords of Yard”), Inc., a production company specializing in reggae music, which participated in the production of “Chi-Chi Man,” the hit song by the reggae group T.O.K. Hamilton is also the creator and producer of Sashi, an annual three-day reggae concert event in Jamaica.

The evidence at trial revealed that Hamilton and his co-conspirators were responsible for shipping over a ton of marijuana a week from California to the New York area, beginning in 1997, until Hamilton’s arrest in January 2005. In its special verdict, the jury rejected Hamiltons’s argument that he withdrew from the marijuana-trafficking business after his arrest with nearly two tons of marijuana at the Los Angeles International Airport in 1999. At that time, the evidence showed, Hamilton jumped bail, adopted a new alias, and continued to operate his marijuana-trafficking business as his role in the reggae music world grew.

Hamilton now faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and – since he had previously been convicted of a narcotics-related felony – Hamilton faces a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years in prison. Hamilton is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24, 2006 at 4:00 p.m., by the Honorable Denny Chin, United States District Judge.

Mr. Garcia praised the investigative efforts and cooperation of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth Carpenter and Jacob Buchdahl are in charge of the prosecution.