Minutes sentenced to 2 years over 1.174 kg cannabis in Guyana
Shemroy Robertson, known as “Minutes”, was found guilty of aiding cannabis trafficking and sentenced to two years in prison with a $30,000 fine at Vigilance Magistrates’ Court. The case stemmed from a June 2021 CANU operation in which 1.174 kg of cannabis was seized from a minibus at Ann’s Grove.
🇬🇾 Vigilance, East Coast Demerara · Guyana
Arrested
2
Sentenced
1
Cannabis
1.174 kg
Prison
2 years
Agencies
Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU), Vigilance Magistrates’ Court
Shemroy Robertson, called “Minutes”, was found guilty of aiding the commission
of trafficking cannabis.[1]Robertson appeared before Senior Magistrate Fabayo
Azore at the Vigilance Magistrates’ Court.[1]The court sentenced him to two
years imprisonment and fined him $30,000 for aiding the commission of
trafficking 1.174 kilograms of cannabis.[1]
According to the Customs Anti Narcotic Unit, the conviction stemmed from an
operation conducted on June 17, 2021.[1]During the operation officers
intercepted a minibus at Ann’s Grove Public Road, East Coast Demerara, and
arrested a suspect with that quantity of cannabis.[1]Robertson was
subsequently arrested in relation to the operation on June 28, 2021.[1]
He had previously been arrested and charged on January 15, 2016 along with one
other suspect for possession of cocaine.[1]The other suspect was released
while Robertson was ordered to stand trial in the High Court and granted bail
which was still pending.[1]He had also previously been arrested and charged
along with three others on March 6, 2017, but the charges against him were
dropped.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
2
Sentenced
1
Cannabis
1.174 kg
Prison
2 years
Agencies
Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU); Vigilance Magistrates’ Court
The guilty verdict and sentence were reported as “last Friday” relative to the August 13, 2025 publication, so August 8, 2025 is used as the incident date.
The currency of the $30,000 fine and $600,000 bail was not specified, so no fine figure is recorded.
No second independent account of the conviction or the 2021 operation was found; the article credits Kaieteur News.
The January 2016 cocaine arrest and March 2017 arrests are separate events and their quantities and people are excluded from the cannabis figures, and the outcome of the pending cocaine trial is unknown.
No value estimate, plant count or field area was published for this case.
Timothy Mc Garrell, 24, pleaded guilty at the Vigilance Magistrate's Court on 18 February 2026 to introducing cannabis into the Lusignan Prison hidden under his slipper soles. Senior Magistrate Sunil Scarce sentenced him to three years in prison and fined him $30,000.
Nishart Samsundar, 20, was jailed for four years and fined G$1,778,400 on 31 January 2024 after pleading guilty to trafficking and cultivation following a CANU raid on a cannabis farm at Hauraruni Village.
Arrested 2Plants destroyed 5,200Cannabis 1.976 kgPrison 4 years
Latchman Sankar, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined G$49.6 million on 18 January 2024 after admitting possession of more than 55 kg of cannabis. CANU officers had arrested him with Sanya Ramrattan three days earlier at Hubu Parika, seizing 102 parcels valued at about G$20 million.
Guyana police arrested three Venezuelans at Arakaka on 20 October 2023 after finding three pistols, ammunition, 64.7 grams of marijuana and cocaine in a house search. One man pleaded guilty and was jailed for three years for marijuana trafficking plus further terms for cocaine and weapons, while the other two denied the charges.
