Flippa Mafia gets new court date

EMBATTLED dancehall deejay Andrew ‘Flippa Mafia’ Davis is scheduled for a retrial in Camden County Superior Court in New Jersey, on May 23.

The date was set when the entertainer appeared before Superior Court Judge John Kelley for a status conference on Monday.

“The State will retry Andrew Davis on the first-degree charge of Leader of a Narcotics Trafficking Network, the one charge on which the jury in the last trial could not reach a verdict,” said Peter Aseltine, Division of Criminal Justice press officer in New Jersey’s Attorney General Office.

“He will not be sentenced on the other charges until he is tried again on the leader charge,” Aseltine continued.

In December, the deejay was found guilty of first-degree distribution of cocaine, second-degree money laundering, and second-degree conspiracy. The first-degree rap carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years, while the second degree has an incarceration period of five to 10 years.

According to prosecutors, investigations began in March 2011, when agents from the Camden High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office seized two packages from a mail facility in Marlton destined for receipt by Andrew Davis and Marsha Bernard. Each package contained four kilograms of cocaine. It is believed the 37-year-old entertainer ran an international drug ring that used the United States Mail and other delivery services to ship cocaine from California to New Jersey. More than 26 kilos of cocaine and over US$500,000 in cash were seized from the network. He has, however, maintained his innocence.

Bernard is scheduled to be sentenced on February 5.

In September, the artiste’s brothers — Kemar Davis, 24, of Hollywood, California (formerly of Margate, Florida) and Roger Davis, 37, of Roslyn, Pennsylvania — pleaded guilty to participating in the operation. All the Davis brothers were arrested in September 2013.

In addition to the Davis brothers, six other persons have been sentenced.

Flippa Mafia, who in a 2012 Jamaica Observer interview said his banquet hall and nightclub in Philadelphia were his source of income, is known as the Flossing King. As part of his set, the flamboyant deejay hurls hundreds of dollar notes into the crowd.

He has appeared in movies including Shottas (2002), which stars Ky-Mani Marley and Spragga Benz. He is known for his songs

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