Three persons were yesterday arraigned in a city court on charges of possession of guns, ammunition and ganja that were found after police raided a house at East Ruimveldt.
Security guard Eustace Thomas, 43, of Lot 606 East Ruimveldt, George-town; security guard Irvin Paul, 57, of Lot 596 East Ruimveldt, Georgetown; and Wavney Paul, 52, pleaded not guilty to five charges that were read against them by Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court 5. They were all remanded to prison.
It was alleged that on June 4th, at Warlock, East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, the trio had a MAC 11-pistol, two .38 revolvers, 11 live rounds of 9 mm ammunition and 482 grammes of cannabis.
According to Prosecutor Simone Payne, after receiving certain information, the police went to the East Ruimveldt house, where a search was conducted in the bottom flat. There, in a bedroom which was occupied by the Pauls, the revolvers were recovered in a bag.
Subsequently, a further search was conducted in the building and in a room occupied by Thomas the MAC-11 and 11 rounds of ammunition were discovered in another bag. The cannabis was also found in his room, the prosecutor said. Attorney Paul Fung-A-Fat, who represented the Pauls, made an application for reasonable bail to be granted.
He said that both of his clients occupied a room in the bottom flat of the house, which houses a total of ten persons, including five adults and five children.
Fung-A-Fat claimed that all the items mentioned in the charges were found in the upper flat of the house and that they did not belong to the Pauls. He added that he has no idea why they were being charged since the items were not discovered in their possession.
He added that from information phe received, others had claimed ownership of the mentioned items.
The magistrate also questioned why the Pauls were facing the charges of possession of narcotics since the illegal substance was not found on them and the police’s facts did not state anything in relation to the duo for that specific charge.
As a result, Payne sought the court’s leave to have the file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
The Paul’s were granted $150,000 bail each in relation to the possession of narcotics charge but were remanded to prison on the other charges. Thomas, who was unrepresented by counsel, was refused bail for all the offences.
The case was adjourned to June 30th.
