(Barbados Nation) Six Guyanese who have been on a prolonged trial in Barbados on a charge of smuggling ganja and cocaine into that country in 2005 were yesterday found guilty and will be sentenced on June 15.
Lemme Michael Campbell, 45, and his wife Somwattie Persaud, 40, both of 106 New Garden Street, Georgetown; Christopher Bacchus, 43, and his wife Dianne Bacchus, 37, both of Bay Gardens, Bayland, St Michael, Barbados; Wayne Gavin Green, 38, of North Ruimveldt, Georgetown and Bridgefield, St Thomas, and Rohan Shastri Rambarran, a 43-year-old businessman of Georgetown, Guyana, were on trial in the Number Four Supreme Court on six counts relating to a police seizure of hundreds of kilos of both cannabis and cocaine at a house in Bay Gardens, St Michael.
All six had denied possession and trafficking in 91.3 kilos of cannabis and 119.4 kilos of cocaine on November 30, 2005, while Campbell and Rambarran had denied importing both cannabis and cocaine on November 29, 2005.
Around 1.50 pm yesterday, the nine-member mixed jury walked back into court after deliberating for nearly three hours.
The foreman, bearing a sheet of paper, rose and, when asked if the jury had reached unanimous verdicts with respect to each accused, replied yes.
He then intoned 28 guilty verdicts. As he did, Somwattie Persaud started to silently cry and her husband held his head down. Rambarran started to fidget as if wanting to rise and speak.
On hand, inside and outside the court, immigration officers waited, while friends of the six hovered in the courtyard of the court complex.
“The prosecution is asking for an adjournment at this stage,” said Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock, QC, who led the prosecution’s team of Principal Crown Counsel Anthony Blackman and Principal Crown Counsel Wanda Blair.
There was no objection from the defence attorneys and Justice Kaye Goodridge adjourned the matter until June 15.
“And the six accused are remanded in custody,” she said, before thanking jurors, police, prison officers and other court staff for the work during the trial.
The verdicts capped a marathon four-day summation which started last Friday and ended around 11 am yesterday, and more than 5,000 pages of evidence, submissions and arguments which were taken during the trial.
Lawmen who testified said they got a tip and started surveillance at a construction site in Rowans Park, St George, where they saw a container of logs being off-loaded. The logs had been exported from Guyana but no one was held here.
They then secretly followed a truck, after some of the logs were loaded onto it, to a house at Bay Gardens, St Michael.
When they raided that house, they said, they caught Campbell, Green, and Christopher Bacchus unpacking parcels from hollowed-out logs and the women packing those parcels into suitcases.
Drugs were also on the kitchen table and by the back door.
They then picked up Rambarran from the Hilton Barbados after Campbell called his name as the ring leader.
In their defence, Rambarran, Green, Campbell and Persaud denied any knowledge of the drugs, but Christopher and Dianne Bacchus said they were used and set up by Campbell and tied him, Rambarran and Green to the drugs at their house.
Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, and Shelly-Ann Seecharan appeared for Rambarran; Vonda Pile represented Christopher and Dianne Bacchus; Vincent Watson and Desmond Sands appeared for Green; while Ralph Thorne, QC, and Arthur Holder represented Campbell and Persaud.
