A murder accused, found guilty of attempting to smuggle 12 ½ grammes of cannabis into the Camp Street Prison, was sentenced to a three-year jail term yesterday.
Randolph Forde, 22 of 36 North East La Penitence and 84 Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, was found guilty at the end of a trial at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts and sentenced by Magistrate Judy Latchman. Forde was also fined $18,750.
He had denied that he, on February 28, attempted to smuggle the illicit drug onto the precincts of the Camp Street jail.
The prosecution revealed that Forde, upon his return from the Bartica Magistrate’s Court, where a preliminary inquiry is being conducted into the murder charge Forde faces in that jurisdiction, was subjected to a routine search by prison officers. According to Police Prosecutor Joel Ricknauth, the narcotic was found in a corn curls bag concealed in another bag Forde had on him.
Forde was then told of the discovery, the drug was weighed and tested in his presence and he was subsequently slapped with the drug trafficking charge, Ricknauth added.
