Guyana Police Force ranks arrested six people in an intelligence-led operation in New Amsterdam, Berbice, on the morning of Saturday 8 July 2017 and seized 7.5 kilogrammes of cannabis from them.[1] Those held included a husband, his wife, their daughter and three other women, whom police said they caught packaging the marijuana.[1] In a second operation that afternoon in ‘C’ Division, police arrested a 30-year-old unemployed man from First Street, Paradise, East Coast Demerara, at his home, where they found seven kilograms of cannabis.[1] Police said all seven were being processed for court and that the New Amsterdam suspects were to appear that Monday.[1]

The six people arrested in New Amsterdam appeared in the New Amsterdam Magistrates’ Court on Monday 10 July 2017, jointly charged with possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.[2] The charge alleged that on Saturday 8 July 2017, at Smythfield, New Amsterdam, the six had seven and a half kilograms of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.[2] Five of the six pleaded not guilty when Magistrate Alex Moore read the charge; the sixth pleaded guilty.[2] The prosecutor told the court that all five women were found in the upper flat of the house cutting and parcelling the marijuana, and that photographs implicated them.[2] The court granted bail of 250,000 Guyana dollars each to three of the women and 150,000 each to the other two, and adjourned the case to 11 August 2017.[2]