CALEB Habeed Caesar of Lot 130 Garnett Street, Newtown, Kitty, Georgetown has been committed to stand trial at the High Court for conspiring with other persons — at William Street, Kitty between April 1 and 26, 2013 — to export 40 kilos of cocaine to the United States.Magistrate Judy Latchman informed the 35-year-old Caesar on Tuesday that a prima facie case had been made out against him establishing the offence of conspiracy to traffic narcotics, and, as such, he has to face a judge and jury at a future sitting of the Demerara Assizes.

Some 40 kilos of cocaine were, on April 26, 2013, discovered in Trinidad on a Caribbean Airlines flight on its way to Miami from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana.

Approximately 21 boxes of wiri-wiri peppers had undergone a physical check and scanning at the CJIA; and at the Piarco International Airport, scanners had also failed to detect the illicit substance among the peppers. However, a sniffer dog at the Piarco Airport began ripping through the boxes when it detected the illicit substance, and small balls of cocaine wrapped and painted in red to look like real peppers — even with real stems pasted on — were discovered.

Caesar had, in 2015, been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by a city magistrate after he had been found guilty of participating in a plot to export 15.55 kilos of cocaine — hidden in ochroes — to the United States between April 1 and August 13, 2013.

His co-accused, electrician Hadrick Cummings, had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in jail and fined $40.5 million. Cummings had disclosed during the investigation that he had orchestrated the shipment along with the accused. Cummings reportedly explained to investigators that he had met with Caesar on the seawall and they had planned the delivery. Caesar reportedly had funded the shipment. Caesar is currently serving a four-year sentence for that offence.