A Canadian man who was allegedly found with a quantity of cocaine in some shoes in a bag at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri was remanded to prison yesterday when he appeared before Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Twenty-five-year-old Miron Francis pleaded not guilty to the charge of trafficking in narcotics.
It is alleged that on Wednesday at the airport, Francis was observed by immigration officers behaving in a suspicious manner. They soon conducted a search on him and his luggage where they reportedly discovered 1.5 kilos of a substance suspected to be cocaine concealed in some shoes in a bag. Francis was arrested and taken to the Criminal Investigation Department, Eve Leary, where police confirmed that the substance was cocaine.

However, Francis’ lawyer, Mohamed Zafar stated that his client  was not aware of narcotics in the shoes. He also stated that the bag with the shoes that had the narcotics was found a few feet away from Francis. The defence attorney then applied for bail.
Meanwhile, Francis stated that “my cousin in Toronto left his shoes in Guyana and I was just taking them back for him cause he don’t have any.”  He stated that he did not know anything about the narcotics found in the shoes and only became aware of it when the officers cut open the shoes.

However Prosecutor Sherwin Mathews stated that “for someone to come to Guyana all the way from Canada for shoes that someone forgot sounds kind of amazing.”  He also said that the offence committed was only bailable under special circumstances and none was presented.

The magistrate then ordered that Francis be remanded to prison and that he appear back in court on November 11.