CEON Paul, who has been a prison officer for over a year, was yesterday sentenced to four years imprisonment for trafficking narcotics in the Georgetown Prison. Paul appeared before Magistrate Ann McLennan and the ex-officer was found guilty as charged . Particulars of the charge sai that on January 12 at Camp Street, Georgetown, he was caught with 30 grammes of cannabis-sativa (marijuana) in the prison.

The convict of Lot 1 Bent Street, Werk-en-Rust, was slapped with two charges when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on January 15 last to answer the two charges.
After denying the drug charge, Paul was remanded to prison and the matter was transferred to Magistrate McLennan for report and fixture of trial.

On January 15 last, he admitted before the chief magistrate that he smuggled packets of cigarettes into the Georgetown Prisons for inmates. On that occasion he was sentenced to six months after he was caught “red-handed” with the contraband.
The court heard that on the day in question, the prison officer conveyed eight packs of cigarettes and a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, both prohibited articles, into the Camp Street facility.
While Paul denied the drug- trafficking charge, he claimed that he took two packs of cigarettes into prison, not eight. He also said that he has three daughters and a sister to take care of.
Presenting the facts to the court, Police Prosecutor Corporal Bharat Mangru explained that on the day in question, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Cameron searched Paul and found one pack of Bristol cigarettes in his right-side pants pocket and another in his right-side shirt pocket, while six packs were concealed in his crotch.
Mangru said that the ASP also observed a transparent bag under Paul’s left arm which when checked, contained a quantity of leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be marijuana. The prison officer was therefore arrested and subsequently charged.

By Geeta Rampersaud