Forty-one-year-old Ronald Hamblin of Amelia’s Ward, Linden was yesterday remanded to prison while a 13-year-old boy was ordered to be kept in police custody shortly after they appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on narcotics and ammunition charges.
Appearing before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson, Hamblin and the teen both pleaded not guilty to the charges of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and illegal possession of a quantity of ammunition.
They denied that on September 26 at Amelia’s Ward, Linden, they had 529 grammes of cannabis in their possession for the purpose of trafficking and 23 rounds of .32 ammunition.
However, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) prosecutor Oswald Massiah stated that agents of CANU had conducted a raid at Amelia’s Ward, Linden on the day in question and observed the teen throwing a black plastic bag over the veranda from a window of a house.
The prosecutor stated that the officers called out to the teen, who then went back inside the house.
The agents subsequently retrieved the black plastic bag and upon closer inspection they discovered a quantity of leaves, seeds, and stems suspected to be cannabis in it, along with 23 rounds of .32 ammunition.
However, the duo’s lawyer, Gregory Gaskin, applied for reasonable bail for them on the grounds that neither the cannabis nor the ammunition was found on them.
The lawyer noted that the boy was only 13 years old and that should be a special circumstance for the offences to be bailable for him.
Massiah then requested that bail be refused for both the teen and Hamblin stating that being a minor was not a special circumstance.
He said that the charges are only bailable if the defence presents special circumstances for the offence and not the offender.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that Hamblin be remanded to prison while the teen is to be kept in police custody. She also ordered that the cases be transferred to the Christiansburg Magistrate’s Court for October 6.