Brickdam lockups - a haven for drugs, weapons, cell phones

Brickdam lockups – a haven for drugs, weapons, cell phones

Sep 25, 2008 News

The Brickdam Police Station lockups is supposed to be a place for holding and detaining persons who have been arrested.

However, reports from numerous sources have made it clear that within the lockups, many laws are still broken.

A recently released detainee of the Brickdam Police Station told Kaieteur News about the sad state of affairs within the lockups. He spoke of detainees possessing drugs, weapons and cellular phones.

The detainee even exposed the fact that some of the other detainees had demanded a ransom from his family for his safety and well-being.

The recently released man, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, explained that during his weekend stint in the lockups he was beaten, forced to fan other prisoners for hours on end and, he reported, the food that his family had brought for him was forcibly taken from him by the men who shared his cell. He added that during his time in the Brickdam lockups, numerous threats were made on his life.

The source explained to Kaieteur News that from the time he was put into the lockups, he saw a number of things that were not right.

The source said that he noticed that almost all of the men in the cell into which he was placed were armed.
While they did not have firearms, there was an abundance of ice picks, cutlasses and other sharp instruments.

How the detainees came by these items, the source could not say, but he noted that he thought the items were hidden from the police by placing them in a separate section of the cell. As evening set in on the first night, the source claimed that the detainees in his cell produced cannabis.

They began to smoke the drug with no regard for the law enforcement personnel who were apparently just in the next room. Despite the smell, the police ranks in the station did not come to investigate.

The other alarming thing, and possibly the most disturbing thing, is that the detainees had access to a number of cellular phones in the lockups.

The source has reported overhearing the inmates making a number of calls, arranging and organizing legal defences to pending court cases, killings of witnesses, and even an alleged prison break.

The source also reported that one of the men with whom he shared the cell, a deportee, seemed to be able to pick locks.

This deportee had apparently picked the lock on a pair of shackles, which bound the ankles of one of the prisoners in the cell, and then bound the source to the detainee. The source was then forced to fan the man to whom he was shackled.

Many of these accusations, concerning weapons, drugs and cellular phones, have been confirmed by other individuals who have spent time in the Brickdam lockups.

A senior official at the Brickdam Police Station confirmed that during routine checks, usually performed on a weekly basis, drugs, weapons and cellular phones were often discovered in the lockups.

However, if the police received information that there is contraband in the lockups, they would conduct an immediate search of the lockups.

He explained that these items were smuggled into the lockups because “it is people we have guarding the lockups.”

He added that it was not unheard of to have the police ranks on duty at the station take bribes in order to have these items passed into the lockups.

He highlighted that these cases were difficult to uncover, but he said that there was one case, which was before the courts at present, where an officer was found smuggling items into the lockups for detainees.

When pressed as to how detainees could be smoking cannabis without the knowledge of the police ranks at the station, the senior official said that at any given time there were approximately 50 persons being detained at the Brickdam Police Station, and if police ranks smelt cannabis, by the time they searched the entirety lockups, those smoking the drug would have disposed of it.

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Brickdam lockups – a haven for drugs, weapons, cell phones

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