Two employees of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, who were implicated in a plot to smuggle cocaine in bottles of rum to the United States, were yesterday charged along with the alleged courier, who had been nabbed after a search of his bag.
Keon Brewster, 21, of Sophia; Loric Williams, 24, of 51, Prospect, East Bank Demerara and Chris Douglas, of Timehri, all pleaded not guilty yesterday to a charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
According to the charge, on May 29, the three men were in possession of 6.034 kilogrammes of cocaine for trafficking at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). The lawyers for Williams and Douglas told the court that the men were forced by police to sign caution statements and questioned the charge against them since they were not in possession of the cocaine.
Prosecutor Bharat Mangru told Chief Magi-strate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry that Brewster, a Guyanese who was in possession of a US visa, was an outgoing passenger at the airport, on a Dynamic Airlines flight destined for the JFK Airport in New York.
Mangru said a search of one of his bags unearthed three bottles of El Dorado-brand rum and the contents of the bottles, which appeared unusually thick, aroused the suspicions of anti-narcotics ranks. A test of the substance later confirmed the presence of cocaine.
Brewster admitted knowledge of the cocaine and pointed out Williams and Douglas, who were both employed as air conditioning technicians at the airport, as the persons who gave him the rum to transport, the prosecutor added.
Further, Mangru said, all three men admitted knowledge of the cocaine and told lawmen that they were all paid various sums to do their part in transporting the bottles of rum.
The prosecutor noted also that CCTV footage at the airport revealed the three men communicating at the washroom area of the airport.
But Attorney Latchmie Rahamat, who represented Williams, disputed the prosecution’s case.
Rahamat submitted a bail application for her client, whom she said was innocent of the charge. It was Brewster who was in fact in possession of the bottles of rum, she noted.
Rahamat also told the court that her client was forced to sign a statement for which he was not the author and she argued that since it was not freely and voluntarily given, the prosecution will be hard pressed to prove its case.
Attorney Nigel Hughes, who represented Douglas, also accused the police of threatening the two men to get their caution statements.
Despite the technology at the airport, Hughes argued that there was no evidence to prove that Douglas was in possession of the cocaine. He further said that the airport employees were charged with being in possession of cocaine for trafficking when it was highlighted by police that they allegedly conspired to traffic in the cocaine. The lawyer, therefore, questioned the accuracy of the charge against the two men, while pointing out that there is a difference between possession and conspiracy.
Brewster, who told the court that he was a mechanic, was unrepresented at yesterday’s hearing.
Despite the arguments of the attorneys, the Chief Magistrate refused to grant bail and the three men were remanded to prison until June 16.
