FORTY-year-old Roy Dundas, a miner of Lot 64 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, appeared Monday before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on two drug-trafficking charges.

He pleaded not guilty to the offences, one of which alleged that on June 18, in the Mazaruni River, he had 26 grammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. The other charge detailed that on the same day, he had 90 grammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.

Attorney Latchmie Rahamat, who represented Dundas, noted that the charges instituted against her client are fraudulent. She explained that Dundas was being blackmailed by some interior soldiers because he was robbed by the said ranks and they became annoyed when the matter was reported, so they had vowed to get back at him.

Rahamat applied for bail for her client, stressing that Dundas strongly denied any knowledge of the drug, and citing that he had been arrested and taken to the station and then shown the strange drug.

Police Corporal Bharat Mangru, prosecuting, told the court that on the day in question, police were on patrol in the area conducting routine searches. They searched a speedboat and its occupants, including the defendant, and became suspicious after Dundas was observed acting in a suspicious manner. The officers searched him and unearthed a black parcel hidden in his pants crotch. In it was suspected to contain the leaves, seeds and stems of the cannabis-sativa plant. A further search was conducted on him, and the cocaine was discovered.

The prosecutor objected to bail because the reasons for its grant advanced by both attorneys were not enough to satisfy the court.
The miner was refused bail, and the matter has been transferred to the Kamarang Magistrate’s Court for September 21.