Buju Banton’s trial has begun

James Preston, for the prosecution, revealed to the jury the contents of recorded conversations: "Do you know where I can find cocaine?" the artist allegedly asked Alexander Johnson, who turned out to be an informant. According to Preston, Buju Banton was looking to develop new trafficking, on top of what he had already set up.

According to Preston, Banton and Johnson met on a flight between Spain and Miami, as he was returning from his European tour last summer: "I'll give you money," he allegedly told Johnson. "You buy, you sell, and you give me the money".

The video footage of Buju dipping his finger in the cocaine to taste it during the transaction on 8 December 2009, filmed by the police, will certainly not help matters. "Yes, he tasted the cocaine," said his lawyer, David Markus. "No, he is not a drug trafficker. He was not involved in the transaction."

But that is not the version put forward by his two co-defendants, who agreed to plead guilty and testify against Buju at trial. David Markus intends to show that Buju Banton was set up by Alexander Johnson, and has highlighted his past before the jury. Johnson, to hear him tell it, was a drug trafficker who imported cocaine from Colombia until his arrest in 1994. Cooperating with the authorities, as the standard phrase goes, he allegedly served only three years in prison before working for several government agencies, pocketing 3.3 million dollars along the way, and more than 50,000 dollars for the Buju Banton case alone.

Alexander Johnson never had a job, said Markus. Instead, he sets people up". He also confirmed that Gargamel would indeed testify at his trial: "He has nothing to hide. The truth is on his side in this case, because he did nothing."