Police welcome drug importer's 20 year prison sentenceBy Tim SmithVictor Roberts was yesterday jailed for 20 years for his plan to import $10 million worth of drugs and 200 bullets.Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons sentenced Roberts to 18 years for conspiring to bring a huge stash of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and cannabis resin into Bermuda, and a further two years for four boxes of live ammunition.Prosecutor Susan Mulligan told Supreme Court how father-of-five Roberts, 47, of Warwick, travelled to New Jersey, where surveillance police saw him place the illegal items inside a heavy compressor with a false bottom.He then arranged for the compressor to be shipped into Bermuda.Police intercepted the load and replaced the drugs and bullets with dummies before catching Roberts as he unloaded it at an address in South Road, Warwick, on July 20, 2011.Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Simmons told the court drugs and ammunition had caused tremendous damage to Bermuda and that Roberts is a fully mature adult who understood the significance of what he was doing.“The community needs to be protected from someone who would turn a blind eye to the harm that drugs and ammunition can cause,” said the judge.Roberts had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import 1.5 kilograms of heroin, one kilogram of cocaine, 113 kilograms of cannabis, and 180 grams of cannabis resin. The heroin alone had a street value of $4.5 million.He also admitted two counts of conspiracy to import ammunition, one in relation to 100 rounds of 9mm and the other regarding 100 rounds of 0.40mm ammunition.He was given two-year sentences for each of the ammunition offences, to run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to the 18-year drugs sentence.Indictment papers previously said the second ammunition was for 40mm, but the prosecution has clarified the correct figure is 0.40mm.Ms Mulligan said Roberts was identified as a possible drugs suspect during an investigation involving Bermuda Police and United States authorities.Police put him under surveillance as he boarded a flight to New Jersey on June 28 last year, tracking him throughout his visit as he carried out his plan, before catching him in the act of cutting the drugs from the compressor when they arrived in Bermuda.Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said Roberts was merely a middle man selected for the role because of his experience as a heavy equipment operator.Mr Pettingill said Roberts had lost his mother at the age of three and his father committed suicide eight years later.Roberts, whose children are aged between eight and 22, addressed the judge, saying: “I’m sorry to the court, to Bermuda, and mostly sorry because of my kids and wife-to-be. I’m not going to be here for them and see them come up.“I can assure you this will never happen again. I will get educated in prison so when I do come back out I can teach them not to do what I did. It was a very stupid, stupid move.”Reacting yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police David Mirfield said in a statement: “The Bermuda Police Service welcomes the Supreme Court’s sentencing of Victor Roberts, who admitted to importing a significant quantity of drugs and ammunition into Bermuda in 2011.“The contraband was intercepted as a result of the ongoing partnership between law enforcement and partner agencies here and in the US. The sentence of 20 years imprisonment should send a strong deterrent message to those engaged in the importation of drugs and firearms.”