The two men who were apprehended on Friday evening last after the Berbice cocaine bust yesterday appeared Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. While one was fined $35 million and sentenced to four years imprisonment, the other was refused bail.
The allegation against Parsram Persaud and Mohamed Razack is that on April 15, at Springlands Corentyne Berbice, they had in their possession 26.978 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Persaud pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read, while his alleged accomplice pleaded not guilty.
In his application for bail for Razack, attorney-at-law Paraj Hookumchand stated that his client suffers from a disability – a hip impediment – and as a result is unable to walk properly. The attorney continued that the defendant makes a living as a porter for people who use the backtrack route to Suriname. He went on to say that people would usually go with their bags and his client fetches them. Hookumchand said his client denied having any involvement with the narcotics, and nothing was found on his person. The attorney went on to explain that his client happened to know the other defendant, who at the time was having some car problems, and as the two were walking towards the vehicle, the officers arrived.
However, special Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) Prosecutor Oswald Massiah objected to bail on the grounds that the substance was found in the defendant’s possession, and defendant was heading for the neighbouring country. Therefore if granted pre-trial liberty, he was likely to disappear, Massiah said.
The magistrate acquiesced to the prosecutor’s objection and refused the defendant bail, after which she transferred the matter to the Springlands Magistrates’ Court for April 21.
Pertaining to the facts presented for Persaud, Massiah said that he hails from 794 Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, and is the owner of a car. Investigations revealed that Persaud had allowed the 26.978 kilos of cocaine to be fitted in a part of the backseat of his car, and on a telephone arrangement with the number two accused, drove his car with the substance to a hotel at Number 78 Village, Corentyne. The court heard that having arrived there he made another call to the number two accused, and was in the process of transferring the substance from his car to the number two accused’s, when the CANU officers approached and identified themselves to him. A search was subsequently carried out, the substance found, and the defendant [along with the substance] escorted to the CANU headquarters, where the substance was weighed, marked and sealed. The defendant was later charged.
When prompted, Persaud gave a lengthy confession to the offence, while stating that he was married with two children and a third on the way.
The magistrate, expressing her satisfaction with the defendant’s guilty confession, handed down the $35 million fine and the four years sentence, stating that she subtracted one year for the defendant not wasting the court’s time.
