By Ayanna Blair
Walter Aaron, a 37-year-old local singer, was yesterday further remanded to prison when he appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton accused of arranging for two Canadian women to travel to Canada after they had allegedly swallowed a quantity of cocaine pellets.
Aaron of East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, along with Britney Chan, one of the Canadian women, were charged separately last week with trafficking in narcotics and were both remanded to prison when they appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. They both had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Chan’s matter was transferred to the Providence Magistrate’s Court for today.
Aaron allegedly had 1 kilo 28 grammes of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking at Georgetown on June 23, while Chan later that day was allegedly found with the same quantity of cocaine in her possession at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri.
Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman appeared for Aaron in association with attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson. He said that his client was told that agents of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) were looking for him so he voluntarily turned himself in.
He noted that the case against his client did not stand alone but was linked to the two Canadian women who had reportedly swallowed several cocaine pellets.
Hanoman said that his client was the taxi driver in the case. He said that from information gathered, when the women were caught members of CANU had to strike a deal with them to reveal the names of all the persons who they had come into contact with while they were in Guyana.
He noted that this was how his client was implicated since the “desperate girls” under pressure told the agents about him. The lawyer stated that the narcotics were never found on his client and his client was before the court because of a “say so of one of the two desperate young girls”. “Anyone that is willing to swallow cocaine is desperate,” added Hanoman.
He explained that his client had a male friend who resided in Canada and had called him to make arrangements to pick him up and his girlfriend at the CJIA since they were supposed to be traveling to Guyana. He said that the friend had even promised to send some money to facilitate this.
He went on to say that his client never received any money and the male friend never came but the two women turned up instead.
Hanoman said further that because of his client’s “goodness”, he took the two women to his home to stay but “cockroaches attacked the young girls at nights” so he was forced to take them to a cheap hotel.
He further posited that if his client was really guilty of the offence he would not have taken the women to his home.
The defence attorney then applied for bail.
However, CANU Prosecutor Oswald Massiah objected to the bail application on the grounds that this matter was associated with the Canadian women’s drug bust.
He said that the prosecution “will give evidence to show that the girls came to Guyana specifically on arrangements involving the defendant.”
He noted that his evidence indicated that Aaron was the “main player” involved in the matter and the “local architect” of the whole arrangement.
Massiah further noted that as it relates to Aaron’s alleged “kindness and innocence” in the matter, he would prove otherwise.
Hanoman then applied for a speedy trial to “ventilate the issue.”
The magistrate subsequently ordered that Aaron be remanded to prison and that he appear back in court on August 24.
According to reports, Chan and the other Canadian woman were
outgoing passengers on a Canada-bound Caribbean Airlines flight at the time of the drug bust. They were subsequently arrested and taken into CANU’s custody where they reportedly confessed to swallowing “cocaine pellets”.
Approximately 70 pellets containing the illegal substance was reportedly excreted from the women when they were taken to a city hospital sometime after.
