Prison officer admits smuggling 15.4 oz of ganja into Northward jail
Rudolph Rambaran, a 39-year-old prison officer at HMP Northward, Grand Cayman, pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband and two counts of ganja possession after officers found 9.13 ounces on him and 6.29 ounces in his car in June 2021. He was due to be sentenced on 7 March 2022.
🇰🇾 HMP Northward, George Town, Grand Cayman · Cayman Islands
Prison officer Rudolph Rambaran pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into HMP
Northward, Grand Cayman, and was due to be sentenced on 7 March 2022.[1]He
admitted one count of smuggling contraband and two counts of possession of
ganja.[1]Rudolph Rambaran was 39, a Jamaican officer who lives in West Bay.[2]
Prison staff were tipped off that he was bringing contraband into the jail, and
a sting operation was set up to catch him in the act.[1]On the morning of 9
June 2021, he was stopped as he arrived for his shift and taken to a room to be
searched.[1]He told officers he had two packages of ganja in the back pockets
of his trousers.[1]Officers found two blue packages of vegetable matter
suspected to be ganja with a combined weight of 9.13 ounces, about 259 grams.[1]He also admitted to having another 6.29 ounces of ganja, about 178 grams,
and two mobile phones in his car.[1]Asked who the ganja was for, he told
officers it was for a prisoner, Jeremy Parchman.[1]He told officers he had
fallen on difficult financial times and had children to maintain in Jamaica as
well as personal expenses in Cayman.[1]
He said he had offended in a very awful way and had brought the Prison Service,
his colleagues and himself utter disgrace and embarrassment.[1]After his
arrest at the jail he was suspended from duty but remained on bail.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
No sentence for Rambaran was reported; 7 March 2022 is the future sentencing date given at the time of the 7 February 2022 report.
Cayman Compass does not give the date Rambaran entered his guilty plea; its 7 February 2022 date is the publication date, not the plea date.
The ganja is described as suspected vegetable matter, with weights recorded before any laboratory confirmation is reported.
The 9.13-ounce and 6.29-ounce weights are stated separately; the 0.437 kg total combines them and is not itself stated.
No charge or outcome for the prisoner named as the intended recipient, Jeremy Parchman, is reported.
Cayman News Service also describes a separate 2021 case against prison officer Arnold Cabrera-Diaz over ganja allegedly hidden in shoes; that separate event is left out of this report.
A police helicopter spotted a canoe off North West Point in West Bay, Grand Cayman, early on 24 September 2020, and the Cayman Islands Coast Guard intercepted it after three Jamaican men were seen throwing packages overboard. Officers recovered 42 packages weighing 980lbs of ganja, and the three men, aged 56, 44 and 31, were charged two days later with importation of ganja and illegal landing.
Police found a Jamaican-style canoe, packages of suspected ganja and two handguns with live ammunition at Spotts Beach, Grand Cayman, early on 21 May 2020. A 46-year-old Jamaican man was arrested that morning, charged two days later over the importation and supply of ganja, the firearms and his illegal landing, and remanded in custody.
Police in George Town arrested three men at a parking lot off Shedden Road shortly after 1:30am on 3 June 2019, after smelling ganja and finding small portions on two of them and several packets in their car. The car's owner, 35 and from East End, was held on suspicion of possession with intent to supply, and two West Bay men aged 34 and 21 on suspicion of possession and consumption.
Police arrested four men in George Town, Grand Cayman, on 14 February 2019 after a speeding car fled officers and police found bags containing suspected ganja estimated at over 400 pounds. The men were held on suspicion of being concerned in importation, and police said investigations continued.
