The police have been ordered to proceed with the prosecution of United Kingdom-based Guyanese Vanessa Moore, who was charged alongside her ex-boyfriend with attempting to smuggle a quantity of cocaine, hidden in bottles of rum, out of the country at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.
Dwayne King, who was accused by Moore of planting 2.9 kilogrammes of cocaine in the rum bottles that he asked her to take out of the country, was recently found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to 60 months in jail.
Although Moore was one of the witnesses against him during his trial, she learned last Friday that she would also have to stand trial for the alleged possession of the cocaine for trafficking.
Moore, who recently gave evidence before Magistrate Judy Latchman against her former boyfriend, Dwayne King, which aided in him being found guilty, will now have to stand trial for the said matter.
According to prosecutor Vishnu Hunt, advice was sought by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the police were ordered to proceed with the matter against the woman.
A request was then made for the Magistrate to recuse herself given the fact that she would have presided over King’s trial.
Magistrate Latchman subsequently recused herself and transferred the matter to the Chief Magistrate for assignment.
The matter, however, was not transferred by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan but adjourned to September 27.
On November 3, 2015, at CJIA, Timehri, Moore was an ongoing passenger on a Caribbean Airlines flight destined for Port-of-Spain and then on to London. During a search, two bottles of locally-produced rum were found in her suitcase and a further search revealed that the bottles contained the cocaine.
On September 1, Dwayne King was sentenced by Magistrate Latchman for the crime.
