A convicted drug trafficker will be sentenced today for escaping from police custody.
Prosecutors said Melvin Maycock Sr., who is known as 'Big Mel', swapped places in the lock-up at the Elizabeth Estates Police Station with his son, Melvin Maycock Jr., with the assistance of Sgt. Troy Lewis in February 2008.
According to the evidence, police arrested Maycock Sr. at Yamacraw Beach on suspicion of drug trafficking. Officers allegedly met his son in the lock-up the following morning.
Maycock, who federal prosecutors in South Florida claim is the head of a multinational drug trafficking gang, is fighting extradition on those allegations along with his son.
Maycock was arrested in June 2008 in relation to the seizure of 1,250 pounds of marijuana and three unlicensed handguns at an apartment at Marine Drive, West Bay Street, in May 2008.
He is serving a three-year sentence for a conviction on those offenses.
In delivering his decision, Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis recommended that police implement a procedure where suspects are immediately finger-printed and photographed upon arrest.
He also suggested that a tamper-proof video surveillance system be installed in all police stations so there would be a record of all activity in the event that allegations of impropriety arise.
Lewis and Maycock Jr. are on bail.

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