Two musicians from New Orleans caught with more than $28,000 at the airport when they planned to fly back to the United States were sentenced yesterday to ten months behind bars.

Thaddeus Ramsey, 29, and Merrill Boyd, 35, admitted conspiring with others to remove criminal property from the island when they appeared in Magistrates’ Court in April. They reappeared in court yesterday for sentencing.

The court heard that Ramsey, a bandleader who is also known as “Peanut”, was found with $10,445 in undeclared cash and Boyd had $18,537, also in undeclared cash, at LF Wade International Airport as they were about to fly back to the US on April 21, 2023.

Travellers must declare if they are carrying more than $10,000 in cash but Ramsey told police he was unaware of the rule and Boyd claimed he won the money from a fish sandwich-eating contest.

The men, who are part of the Big Six Brass Band in New Orleans, have been stuck in Bermuda since being found with the funds and were formally charged in Magistrates’ Court last September.

The pair initially denied the offence and were released on $20,000 bail, but senior magistrate Maxanne Anderson remanded them into custody on April 1. She upheld that decision days later.

Prosecutor Alan Richards said that the defendants’ phones were seized after the incident and a message to Mr Ramsey read that “Merrill can’t do this by himself”.

Mr Richards added that the men “acted in concert and have a shared responsibility for the amount concerned, which should not be mistaken for a divided responsibility”.

He requested that they serve at least eight months in prison for the offence.

Saul Dismont, for the defendants, highlighted their early guilty pleas, good character and social inquiry reports that showed they had “no risk of reoffending”.

He suggested the pair be sentenced to eight months in prison.

Ramsey and Boyd apologised for their actions before they were sentenced.

Magistrate Craig Attridge believed the funds in question “were the proceeds of drug trafficking”.

He said that the men’s actions had the “effect of undermining Bermuda’s legitimate financial services industry and negatively impacting its reputation within the international community”.

Mr Attridge, who said the guilty pleas were entered “far from early”, added: “It is imperative that the activities of cash couriers, such as these defendants, and the methods by which the proceeds of criminal conduct are legitimised, be curtailed if the ultimate criminal conduct itself is to be undermined.”

He ordered that the cash and the defendants’ phones be forfeited and time already spent in custody be taken into account during their ten-month sentence.

Before they were remanded, Ramsey and Boyd expressed bewilderment about being detained on the island.

They claimed that their day in court was delayed by the denial of legal aid.

Boyd told The Royal Gazette in March: “We see nothing to show we’re connected with a crime.

“We are part of an entertainment group. We travel with cash because it’s a cash business.”

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