Essequibo woman remanded over ganja, cocaine charges

A 39-year-old woman of New Road, Essequibo Coast was yesterday remanded to prison by Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Charity Magistrates Court after she was charged with being in possession of marijuana and cocaine.

The police said that on March 7, Roxanne Lawrie a vendor of Charity had in her possession 91.5 grammes of cannabis and 13 grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

According to the police, on the day in question at around 07:40 hrs, a party of police officers from Charity police station went to the Charity Backstreet where Lawrie operates a shop. She was told by the police about a suspicion that she had narcotics in her shop. She allowed the police to search the premises and the police found a black bag that had 41 transparent zip lock bags containing a quantity of leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be cannabis.

A red and white bag was also found that contained a piece of thick, hardish, creamish substance suspected to be cocaine. The woman was told of the offence, possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and was arrested and taken into custody. The cannabis and the cocaine were weighed, sealed and marked in her presence at the Charity Police Station.

The woman who was not represented by an attorney pleaded not guilty to both of the charges read to her by the magistrate. Police Prosecutor Ramsahoye Rambajue objected to bail stating that Lawrie has a pending matter of a similar nature in court and if granted bail, she would not attend trial to prove her innocence. He also said that no special reason was given to the court by the defendant as to why bail should be granted.

After considering the matter, Lawrie was told by the magistrate that the offence is not bailable and she was subsequently remanded to prison until March 27. The case will be called at the Suddie Magistrate’s Court.