A miner was on Monday refused bail and remanded to prison on a charge of ganja trafficking.
It is alleged that Sherwin Stanford, of Lot 101 President’s College Road, East Coast Demerara, had 300 grammes of cannabis for trafficking (ECD) in his possession on June 5th.
Stanford appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry in a city court, where he pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The police’s case is that police on patrol duty, acting on information received, went to Stanford’s residence, where they asked to conduct a search of his apartment. The search, conducted in his presence, uncovered a black plastic bag on a bed head. The plastic bag contained smaller bags that contained leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be cannabis.
Prosecutor Bharrat Mangru objected to bail, while noting that no special reasons were provided to the court.
The court also heard that Stanford had committed the offence while on bail for an offence of a similar nature.
Attorney Jerome Khan, who represented Stanford, told the court that he was instructed that the police, who were in the area because of a lot of traffic at the time, encountered his client sitting on the landing of a shop. As a result, they approached him and asked to conduct a raid of the shop, which he agreed to since he was not in control.
Khan added that Stanford did not go in with the police while they were searching but they later came out and informed him that they found a quantity of cannabis. He said his client has no knowledge of the substance, which was not found in his possession. He said his client believed the facts of the charge and the charge itself were nothing but fabrications.
Despite his submissions, bail was refused and the matter was transferred to the Kamarang Magistrate’s Court for June 15th.
