Two Guyanese men were on Thursday found guilty by a Tampa, Florida federal jury of trafficking in narcotics and face up to life in prison when they are sentenced on February 20, 2014.
According to court documents seen by this newspaper, Yugool Persaud, 61, and Desmond Wilson, 54, were found guilty of two counts of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute it.
According to the documents on count one of the indictment, Persaud and Wilson were found guilty of “combining, conspiring or agreeing to possess with intent to distribute one thousand kilograms or more of marijuana while aboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States….” On the second count, they were also found guilty of “knowingly or intentionally possessing with the intent to distribute, or aiding and abetting others in the possession with intent to distribute one thousand kilograms or more of marijuana while aboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States….”
Persaud and Wilson were ordered detained without bail when they appeared before US Magistrate Judge Thomas G Wilson on September 11. It was noted that the penalties for the offences with which they were charged exceed ten years and there was “a rebuttable presumption that no condition of release or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the appearance of the defendants or the safety of the community…” Added to which, they were in the jurisdiction illegally, court documents said.
Persaud and Wilson were charged under the US Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act following an investigation by the Panama Express Strike Force, an organised crime drug enforcement task force, which includes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the ICE said on its website.
Testimony and evidence presented at trial revealed that a US Coast Guard law enforcement detachment onboard Wave Knight, a British Royal Fleet auxiliary ship, observed a suspicious fishing vessel, Miss Tiffany, transiting a known drug trafficking corridor in the Caribbean Sea, the ICE said.
When Wave Knight called over the radio, Miss Tiffany began evasive manoeuvres, while jettisoning white bales overboard. US Coast Guard boarding teams recovered 1,265 kg of marijuana from the jettison fields, boarded Miss Tiffany and detained Persaud and Wilson.
