The sentence was handed down today by a Federal Judge in the United States. Shervington Lovell “Big Head” will spend the next 11 years behind bars in a US jail for his part in moving drugs between Guyana and the Netherlands by way of the Azores. His co-conspirator Steven Antonius was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Capitol News Editor-in -Chief Enrico Woolford first broke the story. According to the Capitol News report, Lovell, before the sentencing asked the judge for leniency, saying that his actions were based on stupidity and greed.
He said he never believed that this was the way he would be in the United States, in jail, without family or friends and during a pandemic. He said he thought he would have been able one day to visit Disneyland with his family.
He told the court that this was the first time that he has ever been incarcerated. He also asked forgiveness from his wife and children. The judge noted that he has to abide by the law where Congress criminalized conduct on the high seas subject to the jurisdiction of the US, even if the illegal drugs were never intended for the US. Earlier, Lovell told the court that it was never his intent to ship drugs or cause harm to the US.
Back in 2018, Lovell who owns the Tower and Leisure Inn Hotels in Guyana was arrested and charged along with Agimero Castro and Surinamese national Steven Antonius in Jamaica for violating United States maritime Drug enforcement laws in Guyana, Jamaica, Colombia, and elsewhere. The men were conspiring to ship some 600 kilos of cocaine. A meeting was held in Guyana where all the arrangements were made, but an informant leaked the information to the authorities and landed the men in custody in Jamaica. They were all extradited to the United States to answer to the charges. The US did not seek forfeiture of any of Lovell’s property.