Tanzanian Howard Lee Eton who was found with cocaine strapped to his crotch at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri last week and was remanded to prison died yesterday after a pellet of cocaine he ingested ruptured inside him.
Prison officers rushed Eton to the hospital after he collapsed in the prison but he succumbed with minutes of arriving. According to reports, Eton never revealed he had swallowed the cocaine after he was taken into custody and subsequently remanded to the Camp Street jail.
In a news report carried last night, Capitol News said Eton started passing out the cocaine yesterday unknown to prison officers and he became ill. He then collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where he died. It was later confirmed that one of the pellets of cocaine had ruptured in his stomach.
Last Friday the Tanzanian man appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court before Acting Chief Magistrate, Meslissa Roberston-Ogle on a charge of trafficking in narcotics. He allegedly had 909 grammes of cocaine in his possession on June 9. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded to prison.
Eton told the magistrate that he was a solar technician and was working on projects in several countries. According to him, he came to Guyana to register his business and was not told what he was being charged with before he appeared in court. He said further that he is a psychiatric patient and requested to be allowed to see a doctor since he no longer had any medication to use.
