A Customs officer who allegedly took $110,000 from a US-bound passenger who wanted to smuggle a number of protected birds out of Guyana, appeared yesterday in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on two charges.
The passenger was also brought before the court for attempting to take the birds out of the country without getting permission from the relevant authority.
Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) officer Antonio Paul, 27, of Lot 82 LBI, East Coast Demerara and Ronald Persaud, 43, of Lot 52 Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara and the USA were each released on $50,000 bail by Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan.
The two defendants denied a joint charge of exporting species requiring protection in Guyana while Paul pleaded not guilty to a charge of corrupt transaction by an agent.
It is alleged that on Tuesday at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, Persaud was exporting eleven Towa Towa birds without obtaining a permit or certificate from the management authority and Paul on the said day and place did aid and abet the said Persaud to export the birds.
Meanwhile it is alleged that on Tuesday at the airport, Paul being an agent of the government, that is to say a CANU officer, obtained the sum of US$500 which is equivalent to $100,000 along with $10,000 cash as a reward for not seizing the birds from Persaud and for allowing Persaud to take the said birds into the restricted area of the airport.
Attorney-at-law Roger Yearwood in association with Nigel Hughes entered an appearance for Persaud while Paul was unrepresented.
Yearwood in a bail application for his client said that Persaud resides at Lot 156 East Field Drive, Nandy Park, EBD and is a computer technician.
Counsel told the court that when his client was arrested on Tuesday his passport was collected by officials from the US embassy.
He then stated that the matter would not be going further than the next court date since his client is preparing to take a certain course of action.
Yearwood asked the court to grant his client reasonable bail so that he could get the matter resolved.
Police prosecutor Maxine Graham informed the court that Persaud doesn’t have a local address. According to her he had only given police one in the USA.
“He has to prove to the police that he has a local address. It also means that if he doesn’t have a local address then he is a flight risk.”
The prosecutor stated that she was informed by the investigating rank that Persaud told police that he lives at Lot 52 Peters Hall and the person who lives there was boarding the same flight with him to go to the US.
Yearwood in response said that his client’s fianc
