Four men, who were nabbed in Berbice by Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) officers yesterday with cocaine, were this afternoon arraigned on a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and were remanded to prison.
Guyanese-Canadian Narayan Jarbandhan, 40; Salim Bacchus, 49: Gary Belgrave, 52 and Leo Hernandez, 44 appeared before Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. They all pleaded not guilty to the offence after which they complained of being brutalized while in custody of CANU.
The nervous looking men who were unrepresented, showed the court lacerations and bruises to different parts of their bodies.
One of the accused said “they kick meh in meh eye and meh ribs fuh no reason”.
According to the particulars of the charge, on November 3 at Line Path, Skeldon, Corentyne, Berbice, the four men had in their possession 41.456 kg (approximately 82 pounds) of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
They will return to the Chief Magistrates’ Court next Tuesday.
Head of CANU James Singh had said the bust was a joint operation involving CANU, the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad (BASS) and the Surinamese authorities as CANU works to strengthen its cooperation with agencies in neighbouring countries.
The drugs were reportedly in 40 parcels of about 1 kg each, stashed in two bags and it appeared that they were destined for Suriname.
