THE owner of D&D Pawn Shop, Andre Gomes, called ‘Zipper’, on Thursday walked out of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court a free man after a drug trafficking charge was dismissed against him by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.

Gomes, 57, had spent the last five months on remand for the charge which alleged that on January 30, 2018 at his Lot 32, Craig Street, Campbellville home, he had 902 grams of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Magistrate Daly ruled that Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) prosecutor Konyo Sandiford failed to prove her case, since there was no evidence to clearly provide the court of what transpired on the day in question.

Also, another factor was that the main witness, a CANU officer who allegedly saw Gomes handling and disposing of the drug in a black plastic bag through a window, was discredited through his testimony.

In her ruling, the magistrate added that when she visited the scene during the trial, the eye-witness testimony which was related in court was discredited and the prosecution failed to prove the elements of the case that Gomes indeed had the drugs in his possession.

Gomes was then told by the magistrate that the drug trafficking charges were dismissed against him and he was free to go.

In June 2015, a murder charge was withdrawn against Gomes by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) citing insufficient evidence.

He was charged with the May 10, 2015 murder of Nigel Isaacs of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Georgetown. Isaacs was shot in the head outside of Palm Court, Main Street, Georgetown.

In August 2017, Gomes’ girlfriend Naomi Persaud was sentenced to four years jail and fined $21M after 20 pounds of cocaine in a gas cylinder was found at the family’s Campbellville house.

Their grandson, a national Under-19 cricketer, was jointly charged with the offence but the charge was later dismissed after his grandmother “took the rap.” CANU had later issued a wanted bulletin for the arrest of Gomes in relation to the cocaine bust.
However, Gomes’ son– 33-year-old Mark Gomes– along with another accused is currently before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan for trafficking cocaine.

Mark Gomes along with Mohammed Kadir are jointly charged for trafficking 4.9 pounds of cocaine on March 29 at Sheriff Street. The third accused Ryan Fowler, 33, had pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to four years in jail and fined $6M.
Come July 24, the Chief Magistrate will make her ruling in that matter. The matter is being prosecuted by Sandiford also.