A D’Urban Street man yesterday became the fourth man charged with narcotics trafficking as a result of a recent police sting operation.
Paul Sanmoogan, 53, of 37 D’Urban Street, Lodge was remanded to prison by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, after denying an allegation that he conspired with others to traffic 4.772 kilogrammes of cannabis.
The charge was instituted just four days after three men, Leyland Nichols, Dennis Yarris and George Wharton, answered a joint charge stemming from the same police sting operation.
It was alleged yesterday that between March 28 and April 11, at Georgetown, Sanmoogan conspired with Nichols, also known as ‘Bow Wow,’ and other persons unknown, to traffic the cannabis.
According to Police Prosecutor Corporal Kerry Bostwick, the police had received information that led them to launch an investigation, during which Sanmoogan went with an undercover police officer and planned to ship narcotics on board a vessel from Guyana to Barbados. Blackman related that the investigation progressed from March 28 to April 11, when Nichols and Yarris were arrested with 10 pounds of cannabis.
Further investigations were carried out, which led to the arrest of Sanmoogan, who denied any involvement in the plan to traffic narcotics.
Attorney Mark Waldron appeared for Sanmoogan, for whom he sought a release on reasonable bail. The lawyer claimed no one had confronted his client to say that he conspired with them to commit the offence.
Waldron said that the officers told his client that his name was being called in an investigation at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), and his client contacted him and told him of the alleged offence and he accompanied him to the police.
Counsel added that his client has no intentions of fleeing the jurisdiction and he had never been convicted for an offence.
The Chief Magistrate transferred the matter to the court of Magistrate Judy Latchman, where Police Sergeant Vishnu Hunt objected to bail and noted that the accused’s lawyer provided the court with no special reasons as to why Sanmoogan should be released on bail as is required in such cases. As a result, Sanmoogan was remanded to prison until April 22, when the case will be called again.
