Twenty-seven year old reggae singer Metussala “Mandela” Mannings, of Toronto, and the others were arrested after airport officials seized 17 boxes in an air-freight shipment that arrived at Pearson Airport last week addressed to a bogus company.

Authorities said the cocaine was found in hollowed-out star apples in the boxes which also included pineapples and mangoes.

Investigators were first alerted to the crime last August when RCMP seized a marine container in Saint John, N.B. containing 19 kilograms of cocaine stuffed in hollowed-out pineapple.

Several months later, authorities seized another 115 kilograms of marijuana at the Windsor-Detroit border that was hidden in a shipment of watermelon on two trucks.

Arrested were 63-yearold Basil Barnett Blair, of Toronto, 28-year-old Susan Geneva O’Neil, of Scarborough, and 38-year-old Kenneth Arthur Wong, of Ajax.

Authorities said last week’s seized cocaine was worth more than $5 million.

The small wooden boat carrying 60 people left the northeast town of Nagua before dawn Saturday morning.

As of press time, 10 bodies (4 women and six men) were recovered and nine people were rescued.

Reports to the Associated Press thousands of Dominican migrants cross over to the U.S. island territory every year in open boats known that are ill-suited to the treacherous journey.

The man, who has not been identified, was seen falling over the railings of the Allure of the Seas by another passenger.  The incident was also captured on  CCTV.

A spokesperson for the Royal Caribbean International cruise firm said the incident occurred as the ship was sailing to Cozumel.

Both US and Mexican coastguards searched for the man but as of press time the search was unsuccessful.

The Allure of the Seas is thought to be the largest cruise ship in the world, carrying up to 5,400 passengers.  It has a casino, theater, nightclub and a park.

The ship departed Fort Lauderdale on January 29 and stopped in Haiti and Costa Maya and it was on its way to Cozumel when the accident occurred around 12:30 Friday.

The dancehall DJ, whose real name is Oniel Bryan, was taken into police custody on Monday after a 31-year-old woman told police that he raped her at his Hillcrest Avenue, St. Andrew home last month.

The “Jook Girl” singer was arrested last June for stealing electricity.

It is believed that the 26-year-old unnamed man was intoxicated when he fell from the upper level of the ship’s atrium to the lobby level late Friday night when the ship, Carnival Fantasy, was docked in Nassau.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The captain was given permission early this morning to leave the Bahamas and head back to South Carolina.

The Carnival Fantasy was on a five-day cruise.  The ship left Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday and was scheduled to return on Monday.

A spokesperson for the Royal Bahamas Police Force said the 27foot sailboat had been left sitting in the same spot for several days with no sign of owner, John William Batchelor, of Ontario.

When police entered the boat last week they found it ransacked with the dinghy still attached and the swim ladder down.

Police are treating the matter as a missing person.

A 31-year-old Major League Baseball player, who has been playing professional ball since 2006, was arrested this week in Dominican Republic for falsifying his identity.

Fausto Carmona, whose real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, was busted after the mother of the real Carmona ratted him out on a popular radio show in Santo Domingo last month.

After an investigation, police arrested Carmona yesterday.

Apparently Carmona had been paying the real Carmona’s family hush money to use his identity.  Recently, the family went to Carmona and asked him for more money after the Cleveland Indians picked up his $7 million club option for 2012 in October, and he refused.  The real Carmona’s mother then called the radio station and outed him.

Carmona, who made $6.1 million with the Indians last season, made his major league debut with the Indians on April 15, 2006 as a starting pitcher.  He was quickly turned into a reliever, but today he is a starting pitcher.

Reports say Carmona’s real age is 31, and not 28 as previously believed.

Wow…lots of questions here….Will the Indians void the new contract?  Where is the real Fausto Carmona?  Will the real Carmona’s mother be arrested on extortion charges?  How was he able to get away with this for over five years?

Thirty-four year old Stephanie Warren, originally of Tuxedo Court in Ontario, was arrested last Sunday after neighbors, who had become suspicious after not seeing her young son for about 2 months, reported the missing child to police.

For the last two months neighbors had been questioning Warren and her husband, Alfanso, about the whereabouts of their son Jeshurn.

Suspicious of foul play, some neighbors began to stone to couple last Sunday while others called the police.  When officers arrived at the home on Clifton Road in Kingston, they saw the boy stuffed in the suitcase.

Early reports say the boy was not a victim of foul play; however, it is unclear why the parents did not notify authorities of his death.

Update: 1/21/12

Toronto police have contacted Jamaican authorities about a 2008 incident involving Alfanso and Stephanie Warren.

Police told Jamaican officials that the couple pleaded guilty in April 2009 to abandoning their 8-month-old child, whom police dubbed “Baby Angelica”, in a frigid stairwell in a North York plaza parking lot.

Authorities say the child was found on January 30, 2008, with her face down and bleeding.

At the time of the incident, the couple’s three other children, all under the age of 5, were removed from the home.

Alfanso Warren had pleaded guilty to abandoning a child and three counts of failing to provide the necessities o life.  He was sentenced to time served.

Stephanie Warren was found guilty under the Ontario Child and Family Services Act.  She was ordered to pay a $300.

Shortly after pleading guilty, the couple moved to Jamaica.

The couple’s other children, who were said to be malnourished and developmentally delayed, were adopted along with Baby Angelica.

Fabian Palmer, who worked as a pool attendant for the cruise line, allegedly told authorities that he thought the teenager was two years older when he had sex with her in the men’s locker room of the ship.

It is alleged that Palmer befriended the victim and her family shortly after they boarded the Adventures of the Seas in Maryland on December 17.

It is unclear when the alleged crime took place, but on December 23, the alleged victim told authorities that Palmer had raped her in the locker room.  She said the assault ended after another employee entered the room.

On January 11, 25-year-old Palmer was charged with one count of sex abuse on a minor.

Reports say Palmer admitted to having sex with the girl telling investigators he thought she was 16.  He did not say whether he thought the sex was consensual.

Fifty-two year old Shane Ramsundar along with his 48-year-old wife, Gomatee, and their 23-year-old daughter, Shantal, were called “the most despicable gang of criminals” by Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder during sentencing on Wednesday.

Assistant DA Catherine Kane said Shane Ramsundar, of Richmond Hill in Queens, posed as a federal agent who told undocumented West Indians living in the city that he could stall their deportation and get them their green cards.

Kane said Ramsundar’s wife and daughter backed up the bogus claims and the unsuspecting immigrants gave him a total of $1.8million, including a man with multiple sclerosis who gave his total savings of $43,000.

“They stole from their own,” Kane said.  “People [who were] afraid of reporting to the police, terrified of being deported back to a place where they had no one to go home to.”

In addition to the green card scam, authorities say Shane Ramsundar also told his victims that he could get them cheap homes that were seized by the federal government in Florida and Queens.

It is believed that the family used the money to purchase luxury items and vacations.

Shane Ramsundar was sentenced to 235 years in prison; Gomatee Ramsundar received 154 years and Shantal Ramsundar 30 years.