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‘Zipper’ walks free after witnesses bungle case
Freed: Andre Gomes
Fifty-seven-year-old Andre Gomes, called ‘Zipper’, yesterday walked out the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court a free man after a drug trafficking case was dismissed against him by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
Last January, Gomes was arrested and charged after he was allegedly seen throwing a bag containing cocaine over a fence.
Gomes, of 32 Craig Street, Campbellville, Georgetown, was charged with having 992 grams of cocaine on January 30 last.
He pleaded not guilty during his first arraignment before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore and was on remand.
However, as Magistrate Daly ruled yesterday, she told the court that she disbelieved the witnesses’ evidence since they contracted each other. In some cases, their evidence was not helpful in any way.
She began by telling the court that she did not believe CANU Officer Reynolds’s evidence and it was not helpful to the case in anyway.
She added that she had great difficulty in believing Officer Shaquille Vickerie evidence since she found it hard to believe that someone would look a law enforcement officer in the face and throw a bag over a fence.
Magistrate Daly added that another policeman testified to dispatching two officers in the alleyway but Vickerie in his testimony told the court that he was the only person placed in the alleyway. This, the Magistrate said was very contradicting.
The court also heard that Vickerie in his statement stated that the bag of cocaine landed on a fence and in his evidence, he stated that he did not see where the bag landed. He then told the court that he only saw the direction in which the bag was thrown.
The Magistrate further stressed that she was concerned when Thompson said that he was standing east and Vickerie told the court that he was actually standing west in the alleyway.
She added that while it is possible that Gomes threw a bag containing cocaine over a fence, she could not rely on the evidence.
She went on to tell the court that while looking at the evidence as a whole, she was satisfied that they were some evidence that the offence was committed. However, due to the missing pieces in the case, she had no other option but to dismiss the matter against Gomes.
The matter was prosecuted by Customs Anti Narcotics Unit, (CANU) Prosecutor, Konyo Sandiford, while Gomes was represented by Attorney-at-law Mark Waldron.
According to reports, CANU ranks, acting on information, conducted an operation in Craig Street at the residence of Gomes where a quantity of narcotics (992 grams of cocaine), cash, jewellery and other valuables were seized.
Last year, CANU issued a wanted bulletin for Gomes in relation to nine kilograms of cocaine found in a gas cylinder. The gas cylinder was discovered at an apartment, which he rented for his 51-year-old girlfriend, Naomi Persaud.
Persaud who was taken into custody with her teenage grandson. She pleaded guilty to the charge. She was jailed for four years and fined $21M.
As a result of her guilty plea, the charge was dismissed against the teen.
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