Three men, including a veterinarian, were yesterday remanded to prison by Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court after pleading not guilty to the offence of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.
Joel Hodge, 44, a security guard of Urquhart Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown; Rawle Hoyte, 52, a chef of Lot 47 Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, Georgetown; and Quacy Joseph, age 40, a veterinarian of 5th Field Cummings Lodge were all remanded to prison.
It is alleged that on July 4th, 2024 at the Shell Gas Station located on Vlissingen Road in a vehicle PAB 1376, the men had in their possession 5.726 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Attorney at law, Stacy Goodings, who represented all three of the accused, told the court that on the day in question Joseph, who was the driver of the car which is a rental, was on his way to the gym with Hoyte and met up with Hodge at the gas station. It was there, the lawyer said, they met up with another person, an air conditioner (AC) technician to fix the vehicle’s AC. She added that when Joseph was re-entering the car the AC technician started running and that’s when the defendants noticed persons had surrounded them. Those individuals identified themselves as Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) officers and then showed the defendants something in a bag which they all denied having knowledge of.
CANU’s prosecutor objected to bail, and told the court a different version of what transpired. The prosecutor said that the officers acting on information went to the Shell Gas Station where they intercepted PAB 1376 in the parking lot. CANU officers proceeded to open the car and identified themselves, it was observed that Joseph was in the driver’s seat, Hoyte was sitting in the front passenger seat and Hodge was in the back passenger seat.
Upon opening the vehicle, they noticed on the back passenger seat a brown cardboard box which was open at the top and observed one brick-like parcel on the back passenger seat. The box contained 4 additional parcels upon closer inspection it was discovered that the parcel contained a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine.
As it related to the person who allegedly ran from the scene as claimed by the defence the prosecutor told the court that no such person was seen and only the three accused were arrested.
The prosecution then requested three weeks for disclosure of the video evidence as body camera footage was used during the initial investigation.
As a result, Magistrate McGusty adjourned the matter to July 31 2024 for report and disclosure.
