The trial of several suspects said to be connected with drug-indicted Guyanese businessman Roger Khan resumed this week in a court in Suriname, according to a report from Caribbean Net News in Paramaribo.
Khan has been incarcerated in the US since June 2006 on charges that he conspired to import cocaine into the US between January 2001 and March 2006. The story by Caribbean Net News correspondent Ivan Cairo said yesterday that the suspects, including another Guyanese businessman, were captured in June 2006 in Paramaribo in a drug bust that netted over 200 kilos of cocaine.
In this case presided over by Judge Iwan Rasoelbaks, Surinamese entrepreneur Steve Douglas, 51, is the main suspect. The report said that according to court documents, Douglas, the owner of a popular hunting and fishing gear shop, had organized several drug shipments from Guyana to Suriname. Two suspects which the report identified as Prawien P. and Guyanese Radesh R. gave statements before the court alleging that another Guyanese businessman, only identified as ‘Black’ was a key player. The drugs were shipped to Douglas while drug mule Prawien P. would deliver the cocaine to a Surinamese drug kingpin just west of the capital, Paramaribo.
Prawien told the court that he had participated in the drug ring because of financial troubles, and he would receive US$8,000 for his cooperation. According to both suspects, who in this week’s session gave evidence as witnesses, they were involved in at least three large cocaine shipments, the report said further. Prawien stated that for the first two successful deliveries he received a total of US$400,000 which he handed over to Radesh, who subsequently delivered the cash to ‘Black’ in Guyana. Both men told the court that they were present at meetings with ‘Black’ and other individuals to discuss cocaine transactions. The trial has been adjourned until January 29.
The report said also that when the gang was busted on June 15, 2006, police discovered 109 parcels totalling 109 kilos of cocaine in Prawien’s home. The rest of the cocaine was seized in a car near the house where Khan and his three bodyguards were nabbed.
Two weeks after his arrest Khan was expelled and en route to Guyana he was intercepted by US drug officials in Trinidad and Tobago and whisked away to the US to stand trial before a Brooklyn court. Khan’s bodyguards, Sean Belfield, Paul Rodrigues and Lloyd Roberts, early last month changed their pleas to guilty on the charge of illegal departure before Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan and were fined $20,000 each at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. They were accused of departing by sea between June 15 and 16 at Springlands, Corentyne from a port not authorized for such departures.
