A 62-year-old miner, who police say was found with quantities of both marijuana and cocaine in his possession, was remanded to prison on Monday after being faced with two drug charges.
Lionel Mohamed, of Lot 86 Sideline Dam, Beterverwagting (BV), East Coast Demerara (ECD), appeared before Magistrate Crystal Lambert and pleaded not guilty to the two charges of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking. It is alleged that he had 948 grammes of cannabis and 55 grammes of cocaine.
Magistrate Lambert denied the man bail and remanded him to prison. The proceedings were then adjourned until October 12 for statements.
The police in a press release said that around 13:20hrs last Friday, ranks from the Bartica Police Station acted on information received and went to the Bartica Stelling, where a speed boat was being unloaded.
As the thirteen passengers exited the boat, the ranks ordered them to collect their respective belongings and a search was eventually conducted on each persons’ baggage. During the search, quantity of groceries, included a five-pound milk tin was found in a white salt bag which belonged to Mohamed.
The police said that inside the milk tin, four compressed, bulky, transparent parcels, all containing a quantity of leaves, seeds and stems, suspected to cannabis, were found. The search also led to the discovery of another transparent bulky parcel, which contained a whitish rock-like substance, suspected to be cocaine.
As a result, Mohamed was told of the discovery and eventually admitted ownership of the narcotics, the police added.
