Pilot, passenger charged for illegal entry

Sep 20, 2020 News

Crashed plane with cocaine, body…

Two of the three foreign nationals detained Sunday last along with two planes-one of them found crashed with cocaine and a body inside, at Nine Miles, Issano, Middle Mazaruni, Region Seven, were on Friday charged for illegal entry.

The two charged foreign nationals along with the injured pilot (to the extreme right) who remains hospitalised following a surgery.

Charged under the Immigration Act are Juan Ivan Fortool, 29, a Venezuelan pilot of Tumeremo, Estado Bolivar, and Manoel Edson Pinheiro Costa, 35, an internet technician of Manaus, Brazil.
The men appeared before Magistrate Crystal Lambert at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court, West Bank Demerara to answer to the charge which read that on September, 13, 2020 they arrived in Guyana illegally.
The men pleaded not guilty and were remanded to prison until September 30th, 2020.
With regards to the other foreign national, police informed media operatives that he is currently hospitalized following a surgery conducted on him for his injuries.
According to reports, on September 13th, Joint Services ranks had received information of a strange aircraft at the Nine Miles Airstrip, Issano.
The ranks swooped down on the airstrip and found the men- one injured with a 206 Cessna aircraft, registered in Brazil.
The men were detained and had reportedly told investigators that they were heading to Suriname and had encountered some mechanical issues which forced them to crash land.
They also told the ranks of another plane that they believed had crashed somewhere in the Issano jungle.
The following day, ranks located the wreckage of that plane, a crashed Beechcraft containing some 390 kilograms of cocaine and a body.
Police were led to believe that the injured foreigner, who identified himself as a Brazilian pilot, might have been the one piloting the crashed Beechcraft.
The cocaine and the body along with Cessna plane and the three detainees were later transported to Georgetown.
In the city, investigators were assisted by Brazilian authorities and International Police (Interpol) to identify the body and ascertain who the foreign nationals were.
The body has since been identified as a Brazilian national, 49, and it was discovered that the injured pilot had been previously charged for drug-trafficking in Brazil.
Investigations are still ongoing.

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