Five men were arrested after Guyana’s Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit stopped a vehicle on Parika Public Road, East Bank Essequibo, on 6 June 2018 and found cannabis and cocaine hidden in two plastic gas bottles in the trunk.[1] The agency said the haul was one of its biggest since it was set up: 35 kilogrammes of marijuana and 13.8 kilogrammes of cocaine.[2] Stabroek News reported CANU’s figures as 77 pounds of marijuana and 30 pounds of cocaine.[1] Prosecutors said the drugs had been brought to Parika from Charity by speedboat before the handover.[3]

The five were charged at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court on 12 June 2018 with trafficking 13.8 kilogrammes of cocaine and 35 kilogrammes of cannabis at Parika, and all were remanded to prison until 3 July.[3] Four of them pleaded not guilty; the boat captain admitted carrying the drums but said he did not know what was inside them.[3] A CANU prosecutor told the court that one of the accused had previously been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States and deported to Guyana.[3] His lawyer said the drugs were not found on his clients, who were sitting in a car a short distance from the search.[3]

Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool convicted the mechanic and sentenced him on 31 January 2019 to four years in jail for trafficking 13.8 kilogrammes of cocaine and 35 kilogrammes of cannabis at Parika.[4] The magistrate also fined him $21,048,000 for possession of the cannabis, on top of a $28,996,000 fine for the cocaine.[4] The other four heard that there was insufficient evidence against them and were freed.[4] The magistrate said the mechanic’s account had failed to show he had no knowledge of the drugs, which were hidden in gasoline bottles.[4] CANU said the bottles had been cut at the bottom, rewired and covered with a brown paste to hide the packages of leaves, seeds and stems.[4]