Reggae star Buju Banton (born Mark Myrie) is awaiting the verdict in a drugs and firearms trial. Buju Banton was arrested at his Florida home in December 2009 after trying to buy cocaine from undercover police officers. TJKS promises an update as soon as a verdict is verified. We Repeat: Tthe verdict in the Buju Banton trial is now expected on Monday, September 27

Buju Banton is on trial for intent to buy and distribute cocaine, as well as possession of an illegal firearm.

Banton’s co-defendants, Ian Thomas and James Mack, have pled guilty.

Buju Banton: ‘I Had No Intention to Distribute’

Buju Banton, taking the stand during the trial, said that he had no intention of selling cocaine, and was only talking about it to impress a new friend.

Buju Banton, a prosecutor said, “is a spoiled entertainer used to getting his way.”

The description of the four-time Grammy nominee countered the defense portrait given during summations Thursday morning of a reggae artist who “was the heart and soul of Jamaica” and wouldn’t risk everything to participate in a drug deal.

Now a federal jury is deliberating whether Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, is guilty of conspiring to distribute 5 kilograms of cocaine and possessing a firearm in the course of drug trafficking. Jurors deliberated three hours Thursday before breaking for the evening. They will reconvene this morning.

Banton, 37, has been in jail since his arrest in December after a sting at a warehouse owned by the Sarasota Police Department. The sting was the culmination of an investigation that began in July 2009 when the singer, returning with his band from a European tour, happened to sit next to an informant on a flight from Madrid to Miami.

The informant, Alexander Johnson, is a convicted cocaine smuggler who avoided a long prison sentence and earned more than $3 million from the government by going to work for law enforcement.

Authorities recorded numerous conversations in which the two men talked about drug trafficking. They met twice soon after the plane trip but then didn’t get together again until Dec. 8.

In the interim, Johnson called Banton several times, but Banton refused to meet with him, often saying he was touring with his band or had other obligations.

The defense maintains Banton was set up by a “master manipulator, a con man” who charmed the musician and tantalized him with promises of helping his career, then tricked him to go to a warehouse where kilos of cocaine were displayed.

Banton testified he wasn’t serious about the drug conversations, saying it was just talk aimed at impressing Johnson.

“Mark Myrie said a lot of stupid things,” defense attorney David Oscar Markus said in his closing argument. “Yes, it was crazy talk. … We need more than words.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Preston said Banton knew what he was doing.

Banton didn’t invest any money, but he placed Ian Thomas, his friend and driver, into the conspiracy, vouching for him and guiding him in the deal, Preston said. Banton not only joined the conspiracy but also “caused it, brought it about.”

“Words have a meaning,” Preston said. “And words have a goal to accomplish a plan. Words can be enough.”

Preston played part of a video made Dec. 8 in the warehouse. After Banton tastes the cocaine, he is seen sitting in a chair while Thomas talks on the phone to other conspirators about the deal. Then Thomas negotiates with Johnson about how much he will charge for the cocaine.

“You name the price,” Banton can be heard saying.

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TAMPA, Florida – The jury has broken their deliberations for lunch and the courtroom closed in the trial of Reggae singer Buju Banton. The jury will return for their deliberations at 1:00 pm or 12:00 pm Jamaican time.

On the 5th floor of the Gibbons US Court here in Tampa, Buju Banton’s supporters prayed and held hands, while his longterm friend and fellow entertainer Wayne Wonder broke out singing the embattled artiste’s popular hits of the nineties including ‘Serious’ and ‘The Stone Love Anthem’.

“The tension is too thick,” a supporter says.

Buju is being held in a holding area until the verdict is read.

If convicted, the artiste, real name Mark Myrie, could be sentenced to life imprisonment or slapped with millions of dollars in fines for the charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and illegal possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a crime.

He was arrested at his Tamarac, Florida home on December 10 last year, following the arrest of former co-accused Ian Thomas and James Mack, who had been in possession of the firearm for which Banton was jointly charged.

Thomas and Mack have since pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.