A year after a wanted bulletin was issued for his arrest, former Roraima Airways baggage handler Kennard De Jonge was yesterday brought before a city court and charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine
Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan read the conspiracy charge to De Jonge, 34, of 88 ‘C’ Field, Sophia.
It is alleged that De Jonge, between February 1 and February 2, 2016, at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, conspired with others to traffic a quantity of cocaine.
The accused was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge.
According to police prosecutor Arvin Moore, four other persons were charged with the offence and are currently before Magistrate Leron Daly.
The prosecutor went on to object to bail being granted, while citing the fact that the accused was on the run since the commission of the crime.
De Jonge was later remanded to prison by the Chief Magistrate and is expected to make his next court appearance on October 19, when a date is to be set for the commencement of the Preliminary Inquiry into the charge.
On February 19, 2016, immigration officers Oral David, of Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara, Orin Parris, of Timehri, Raduskie Wright, of Number 77 New Housing Scheme, Corriverton, and security officer Diane Jackson, of Soesdyke Public Road, East Bank Demerara, were charged with conspiring to traffic 1.3 kilogrammes of cocaine found aboard a Dynamic Airways flight.
Days after the four were charged, the police had issued a wanted bulletin for De Jonge, who was a baggage handler for Roraima Airways, which was the ground handler for Dynamic Airlines here.
A baggage handler at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York had discovered the cocaine in a small, unidentified package in the cargo hold of the Dynamic plane on February 2, 2016. It is believed that the drug was smuggled onto the plane by someone who was not a passenger as it was found not in luggage, but by itself in the baggage hold.
