Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Two get $11.7M fine, 3.5 yrs in jail for trafficking cocaine – third accused walks free
Two men will now be serving time in prison while their co-accused has walked free. They were accused of trafficking almost six kilograms of cocaine concealed among a quantity of beauty soap.
Freed Oneal Charran
Jailed Aundre Singh
Jailed Clifford Gouveia
The jailed defendants are businessman Aundre Singh, 57, of 779 Section B, Block X, Diamond Housing Scheme and taxi driver Clifford Gouveia, 60, of 14 Little Abary, East Coast Demerara. Oneal Charan of 47 Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, Georgetown, was freed.
Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus was presiding over the hearing in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts where she also handed down her sentence.
It was alleged that on October 3, 2018 at the Rupert Craig Highway in the vicinity of the Kitty seawall, between Pere Street and Queen Street, they had 5.582 kilograms of cocaine in their possession for the purpose of trafficking. All three men had denied the charge on their first appearance.
Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus ruled that based on the evidence of the prosecution she found Singh and Gouveia guilty of the charge. However, Charan was freed of the offence.
Singh and Gouveia were represented by attorneys-at-law George Thomas and Bernard Da Silva respectively. After the magistrate’s ruling the attorneys entered a plea of mitigation on behalf of their clients.
The attorneys both asked the magistrate to take into consideration the health of their clients and as such, asked for the minimum sentence to be given when handing down her sentence.
On the other hand, Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU) prosecutor Narissa Leander indicated that the men should receive the maximum penalties for the offence because of the type of drug, the quantity, seriousness and prevalence of the offence.
The men were then sentenced to three and a half years with the four months they spent in prison on remand being deducted. They were also fined $11,722,200.
According to information, on the day in question CANU ranks after having the men under surveillance and saw the handover of the package, intercepted the vehicles the men were in.
A search of the vehicle revealed a box containing five suspected brick like substances suspected to be cocaine concealed among beauty soaps between two cars. The articles were tested positive as cocaine amounting to a total of 5.582 kilograms of cocaine.
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