FIFTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Campbellville businessman Andre Gomes, called ‘Zipper,’ is expected to lead his defence today (June 28) before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly as the trial into the drug-trafficking charge winds down.
Gomes, the owner of D&D Pawn Shop, is charged with allegedly trafficking 902 grams of cocaine on January 30 at his Lot 32 Craig Street, Campbellville, home. He had denied the charge since his first court appearance.

Gomes’ attorney Mark Waldron had told the court that the alleged drug was not found in his client’s possession, but in an alleyway which separated his client’s home.
Custom Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) prosecutor Konyo Sandiford had however told the court that there was an eyewitness who saw the accused handling and disposing of the drug in a black plastic bag which was picked up by CANU ranks during the raid at his home.
In August 2017, Gomes’ reputed wife Naomi Persaud was sentenced to four years jail and fined $21M after 20 pounds of cocaine in a gas cylinder was found at the family’s Campbellville house.

Their grandson, national Under-19 cricketer Joshua Persaud, was jointly charged with the offence but the charge was later dismissed after his grandmother “took the rap.”
CANU had later issued a wanted bulletin for the arrest of Gomes in relation to the cocaine bust.