A Canadian woman, in her sixties, was yesterday remanded to prison for the possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking when she appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ court.
It is alleged that on December 25, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, Bhagwattie Seepaul aka Shirley, Mary and Yvonne of Lot 90 Shutter Street, Toronto, Canada had in her possession 3.058 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Seepaul, who was born here, pleaded not guilty to the charge read to her by the Chief Magistrate.
CANU special prosecutor, Oswald Massiah, told the court that Seepaul has lived in Canada for 45 years and came to Guyana for the holidays. She went to Berbice where she joined some relatives. On her way back to Canada, she came to Georgetown with a suitcase. While she was at the Berbice Bus Park on December 24th, she alleged that a male by the name of Alex approached her and involved her in a conversation. He later took her to a hotel at Parfaite Harmonie on the West Bank Demerara.
Massiah further stated that on December 25, the defendant said that Alex went for her and brought her to Georgetown and gave her a package to take for someone. She placed it in her suitcase. The suitcase was scanned before she left on her flight BW 606 and suspicious objects showed up on the scanner. Massiah said that the CANU officer searched the package which was a plastic bag with food items and found the illegal substance in one.
The officer suspected it to be cocaine. Another container labelled as Lalah’s curry powder was also searched. When the label was removed, another label was seen underneath. When checked the container appeared to have curry powder on the surface but on the bottom the illegal substance was evident. Seepaul was cautioned and subsequently arrested. The substance was weighed in her presence.
The prosecutor also stated that an investigation is ongoing to find the Alex that Seepaul spoke of.
Seepaul said that she came to visit a sick cousin and she was once a volunteer in Guyana.
She was refused bail.
The matter will continue on January 8 in court 1.
