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Tragedy rocks East La Penitence…Child, three adults dead after consuming cocaine-laced tonic
– cops detain alleged owner of bottle that was to be smuggled to the US
By Latoya Giles
A six-year-old boy and three adults from East La Penitence died yesterday after unwittingly ingesting the contents of a bottle of SSS tonic, which was laced with cocaine and was to have been smuggled to the US.
Natasha George 36, her friend, Simone Pryce, 36; Pryce’s reputed husband, Alex Blair, 42 and their son, six-year-old Jahaquel Blair, all of Cookrite Street, succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), after frothing at the mouth and collapsing with agonizing stomach cramps.
Dead: 6-yr-old Jahaquel Blair (left)
and Jamal Waterman (critical)
The couple’ son, 12-year old Jamal Waterman, who also ingested the substance, was admitted in a critical but stable condition at the GHC). It is believed that he may have survived because he spat out the substance and also drank some fruit juice afterwards.
Kaieteur News was told that ranks from the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit tested the substance and confirmed that the ‘tonic’ contained cocaine “in the purest form.”
Police disclosed that they have detained two men, including an individual called ‘Barney,’ who is said to be the person who had asked a relative of Simone Pryce to take the cocaine-laced ‘SSS Tonic’ to the US.
Kaieteur News was told that ‘Barney’, who is a cousin of Pryce, had asked Pryce’s sister to take the ‘tonic’ to the USA, but she objected.
“She said she wasn’t taking back no tonic because tonic is sell plenty in de states so it left back,” a relative told this newspaper. The relative further told Kaieteur News, that the woman returned to the US on Saturday evening.
Two of the victims are close friends and also neighbours. A relative said that after returning from church, the five drank some of the ‘tonic.’
Within minutes, six year old Jacquel collapsed and began frothing at the mouth. His parents, Alex and Simone, quickly summoned a taxi to take him to the hospital.
But while waiting for the taxi, Jacquel’s mother also began to froth at the mouth and cry out for intense stomach cramps. One vehicle left with the father, mother and child, while another car transported Natasha George and 12-year-old Jamal Waterman to the GPHC. Kaieteur News was told that Waterman drank a quantity of fruit juice after ingesting just a little of the substance.
Dead: Alex Blair and Simone Pryce
A police statement said that Alex Blair, his reputed wife Simone Price, son Jahaquel Blair, and family friend Natasha George, all of Cookrite Street, East La Penitence, Georgetown, ingested SSS Tonic into which a quantity of cocaine had been dissolved.
Another son, Jamal Waterman, 12, who had also drank some of the liquid, has been admitted to the GPHC, the statement said.
“Investigations so far have revealed that the bottle of SSS Tonic with the cocaine dissolved inside, along with casareep and chicken foot, had been left at the house by a man known to them, for a female guest from overseas to take back when she was returning. She, however, did not carry the items and during this morning the victims consumed some of the SSS Tonic which had been left in their possession,” police said.
Meanwhile, several legal experts said they are unsure what charges, if any, the two suspects may face. One lawyer explained that it’s highly unlikely that they can be charged with murder or manslaughter.
This newspaper was told that for the men to be charged, the prosecution has to establish that the suspect intentionally set out to poison the persons. It was explained that the laws in Guyana are not as stringent with matters of this gravity. The suspect could more than likely be charged with trafficking in narcotics but even that would be a stretch the lawyer explained.
Dead: Natasha George
The maximum time for trafficking is three to five years.
“In the US there’s the felony murder…whether its intended for one person or another that individual would be charged” the lawyer explained.
On May 1, a 35-year-old Guyanese Godfrey Anthony Cassisus, who travelled to the United States on Travelspan Airlines on April 22, 2014 was busted at New York’s JFK International Airport with over 17 pounds of cocaine stashed in custard powder packets.
According to reports, he was able to pass through security at Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan Airport without the packets of cocaine being spotted.
He travelled to the United States on a B1/B2 visa.
(Additional reporting by Romila Boodram)
The bottle of cocaine laced tonic
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