Prison officer Keifer Lindore, of Lot 126 Section ‘B’, Lot ‘X’ Greater Diamond, East Bank Demerara, appeared yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, before Acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus where he was charged with possession of narcotics.
Lindore, 26, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
It is alleged that on July 16, at Camp Street, Georgetown, the defendant had in his possession 108 grams of a substance suspected to be cannabis.
The court heard that Lindore is a prison officer attached to the Camp Street Prison.
The administration of the prison received an intelligence tipoff that Lindore would bring narcotics into the facility and as such arranged on July 16 to have him vetted when he entered the prison compound.
On the day in question at about 2200 hours, the defendant entered the Camp Street Prison compound and had to subject himself to a body search. Among the items in his possession were two plastic bottles wrapped in a blanket.
He was asked by the cadet officer conducting the search about the bottles. He responded that they were Ensure (a liquid supplement drink) and before the officer could verify this, grabbed them and tossed them over the fence. The plastic bottles were retrieved and opened. One contained leaves and stems suspected to be cannabis while the other contained ‘fronto’ and ‘bambu’ (used for wrapping cannabis to facilitate smoking). The narcotic was then weighed and amounted to 108 grams.
The court also heard that Lindore has been a prison officer for the past three years at the Camp Street Prison and had no previous brush with the law. The court prosecutor, however, objected to bail based on the prevalence and seriousness of the offence, and on the grounds that eyewitness statements and CCTV footage are in place.
The magistrate refused bail and adjourned the matter to August 2.
