EIGHTEEN-year-old Ganesh Lall, known as Steve, of Walton Hall, Essequibo Coast, was remanded to prison on Monday by Essequibo Magistrate Sunil Scarce for possession of cocaine. Reports are that the teenager appeared before the Magistrate in the Charity Court on Monday to answer to a charge of possession of three grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, pleaded not guilty, and was remanded to prison.

The teenager had been unrepresented in court.

Police reports are that the teenager was seen at Anna Regina on Sunday night acting in a suspicious manner, and was stopped and searched by police officers on patrol in the area, whereupon the cocaine was discovered concealed between two twenty-dollar notes in his pants pocket. The teenager is expected to make another appearance in the Magistrate’s Court on May 22.

Several residents have commended the police for arresting persons smoking cocaine, but they are questioning why the persons involved in selling the cocaine are not arrested. They are calling on the police to get behind the seasoned drug pushers in the region, and erase the problem from the township, so young people can be protected. The police need to act and do more to rid the region of drug problems.