A clothing vendor who was allegedly found with cocaine hidden in the false bottoms of two suitcases at the Timehri bus park on Wednesday, was yesterday charged and appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Patrick Anthony Mentore of 32 Holmes Street, South Ruimveldt Park pleaded not guilty to the charge of trafficking in narcotics and was remanded to prison by Magistrate Hazel Octive Hamilton.
It is alleged that on Wednesday at Cornhill Street, he had 909 grammes of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Shortly after the case was called, his lawyer Euclin Gomes requested a short date for him to address the court in relation to special circumstances for bail for his client.
However when the magistrate announced a date in February 2008, Gomes changed his mind and informed the court that he would make the application on this occasion.
The lawyer acknowledged that his client was before the court for a serious offence but he said, “the circumstances of his arrest will show that he was at no time found with any bag or suitcase or anything in his possession.”
According to Gomes, there is no inference that his client intended to travel and he didn’t even have a ticket.
He explained that Mentore was standing at the bus park where so many other persons were but “he seemed to have been the chosen one.” The counsel added that the suitcases in question were removed from a minibus that had several other persons and suitcases and bags inside.
He stressed that at no time was his client in that minibus. Gomes told the court that Mentore lives with his reputed wife and he buys and sells clothing.
However, Police Prose-cutor Shellon Daniels said police officers at the Narcotics Branch received certain information and consequently went to the Timehri bus park. There, she said, they saw the defendant exit a white car and take two black suitcases from the trunk. He then placed them in a minibus, she said. She said they approached him and informed him about their suspicions, asking him to take the suitcases out of the bus.
Daniels said Mentore refused and a policeman removed the cases. A search was conducted and the drugs were discovered in false bottoms of the suitcases. She objected to bail being granted to Mentore.
After hearing the prosecution’s case against Mentore, the magistrate refused him bail. The matter will continue on February 4 next year.
