A 32-year-old man was remanded by Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton when he appeared on a charge of possession of cocaine in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Raymond Bandhu of 93 Cooper Street, Albouystown was charged with the possession of 16 grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. It is alleged that the cocaine was found on Bandhu at a tenement yard at 33 James Street, Albouystown.
Attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson, representing Bandhu, expressed surprise that two other persons arrested with his client were not charged also; one was placed on station bail while the other reportedly escaped lawful custody.
According to Thompson his client went to visit his children who live with an aunt at the James Street address on the day that the cocaine was found. He said according to his instructions the cocaine was found in the floorboard of an apartment adjoining the one his children live in. The police went to the address to carry out a raid and arrested everyone in the vicinity at the time.
Police prosecutor Desiree Fowler said that her instructions were quite different. According to her when the defendant was confronted he had his hands in his pocket and when told to raise his hands in the air the cocaine fell to the ground in a transparent plastic bag. She said that the two other persons arrested at the yard are to be charged separately. The prosecutor acknowledged that one did escape but a warrant will be issued for him.
Thompson made an application for bail but Fowler objected, saying that the section the accused was charged under did not allow for bail, except under special circumstances which were not apparent in this case.
The magistrate ruled in favour of the prosecution and Bandhu will have to return to court on April 30.
