Terrence Williams, who is the focus of a probe into the theft of pharmaceutical supplies from the Ministry of Health’s Diamond drug bond, was on Friday faced with five charges, including the unlawful possession of guns and bribery.
Williams, 22, of Lot 251 Farm, East Bank Demerara (EBD), appeared at the Diamond Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Sunil Scarce, who read the charges to him and remanded him to prison.
He faced two counts of unlawful possession of firearms, two counts of unlawful possession of ammunition, and one count of attempting to engage in a corrupt transaction.
It is alleged that Williams, who is a storage attendant and father of four, on March 21, 2022, at 1st Avenue Diamond, EBD, had a .38 pistol with 27 rounds of matching ammunition in his possession, although he was not the holder of a firearm licence. It is also alleged that Williams had a 9mm Luger pistol with two matching rounds of ammunition. It is also alleged that he tried to execute a corrupt transaction at the Golden Grove Police Station, where he is accused of trying to bribe officer Leon George with $1.75 million.
The man pleaded not guilty to all five charges and was remanded to prison.
The accused was represented by attorneys Dexter Smartt and Dexter Todd. Todd asked for bail to be granted to his client, while noting that he was a first-time defendant.
Prosecutor Hemchand Sukhna opposed bail due to the seriousness and prevalence of the offences allegedly committed by the accused.
Bail was denied and Williams is scheduled to make his next court appearance on April 28, 2022.
Williams was arrested after the police, who were responding to a report of larceny at the MoH bond, carried out a search on a car, PAB 3032 belonging to him and found the guns, ammunition and cash
The police said the man was cautioned and replied “officer leh we deal with this before it reach de station.”
He was subsequently taken to the Golden Grove Police Station’s Criminal Investigation Department office, where police say that while being questioned about the unlicensed firearms and ammunition, he requested his bag and he withdrew and offered the police investigators $1.75 million in cash to forego prosecution.
At this point, the police said that he was told of the new offence committed – Corrupt Transaction with Agent – cautioned and replied “Well sir tek de whole bag a money. All I want is me freedom”.
Police said a total of $4,580,000 in cash was found. Of the amount, there was $5,760 in US currency.
Todd yesterday told the court that on the day of his client’s arrest the young man received a call from his manager informing him to report to his office. While there, he said, his client was further informed that a search was conducted on two vehicles that were registered under his name and the guns, ammunition and money were found in one.
Todd went on to argue that although the vehicles were registered to his client, due to multiple occupancy of the vehicle, his client may not be guilty.
According to Todd, earlier in the morning, three males attached to the drug bond had borrowed the vehicle, PAB 3032, to transact business, while his client did not leave the compound with the vehicle nor did he conduct any sort of operations during the morning after signing in at the compound. He also noted that the keys for the vehicles were left in a room in the bond which could be easily accessed by anyone in the bond.
Apart from Williams, two other persons — a doctor and retired Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer — were arrested on Wednesday.
One of them has since reportedly admitted that theft of drugs from the bond has been ongoing for a number of years.
