The immigration officer and her sister, who were allegedly found with a quantity of cannabis stuffed between some clothing in a bag, were both remanded to prison yesterday when they appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Twenty-year-old Susan Clement and Ashanna Mars, 18, of 99 Laing Avenue, both plead
ed not guilty to the charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.
It is alleged that on October 29, at the girls’ Laing Avenue home, Clement was found with 153.6 grammes of cannabis in a bag stuffed between some clothing.
Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman stated that both Clement and Mars had cooperated with the police and that they had informed them that they were asked to take some clothing that were in a bag for a relative’s children, since the said relative is currently hospitalized. He said his clients were not aware that the cannabis was in the bag. Hanoman further stated that as Clement and Mars were leaving, the police went to the house and conducted a search on them and the cannabis was found in the bag with the clothes. Clement was holding the bag. They were both arrested and later charged.
Hanoman applied for bail for both Clement and Mars and asked that the matter be sent back to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for more advice.
However, Prosecutor Desiree Fowler objected to the bail application on the grounds that Clement and Mars could only be granted it under special circumstances. “This is a case where the narcotics were found on the person,” the prosecutor said.
However, Fowler said, from the information gathered from the girls’ brother-in-law, Clement and Mars had been asked by him to carry the said bag with the clothes for a relative’s children and that was how they were found with the bag. She said that Mars had given the bag to Clement and that was how the police found it in her hand.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that both Clement and Mars be remanded to prison and that they appear back in Court on December 3.