THE Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) has distanced itself from an article which appeared on page 17 of yesterday’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle headlined `National cyclist tried to raise `quick money’.According to a release from the GCF, Kwame Cumberbatch, who according to the article ingested a quantity of cocaine pellets and tried to smuggle it to Barbados, was never a cyclist and he was never registered with any cycling club in Guyana.
The GCF stated that “Cumberbatch never participated in any of their sanctioned events and they have no known knowledge of the individual”.
Cumberbatch, who described himself as a ‘local cyclist’, was on Tuesday sentenced to three years in jail and fined $873 000 on a conviction of trafficking narcotics by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
He also appeared before Sparendaam Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul on Wednesday and admitted that on January 28, he had 518 grams of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. He was then sentenced to four years imprisonment along with a $1.3M fine.