– as cocaine-in-lumber trial draws to a close

COME early next year, motorcycle racer Stephen Vieira and three other men, including a former customs official, will know their fate as Magistrate Rushelle Liverpool is expected to make her ruling in the $550M cocaine trafficking charge.

The men, former customs officer Sherwayne DeAbreu of Eight Street, Section ‘A’ Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown; Vieira of Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown; and businessman Tazim Gafoor and his son, Nazim Gafoor, a motorcar racer, both of Menzies Street, Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, are all on trial at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court for aiding Hakim Mohamed in trafficking 84.986 kilogrammes of cocaine between March 1 and May 2, 2017.

The defendants have all led their defence in the matter, and opted to give unsworn statements in court.

Evidence was led in the case by Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Prosecutor, Konyo Sandiford. Magistrate Liverpool has tentatively set January 24, 2019 as the date she will hand down her ruling in the case.

According to reports, the bust was made after CANU officials received a tip-off on May 12 last year. When the ranks acted, they found that dressed lumber boards were being packed onto a truck.

The truck driver and porters were arrested, but were subsequently released after it was discovered that the vehicle and its workers were hired to transport the timber.

The drug agency, in a release, said that ranks conducted a search on the parapet in front of Mohamed’s premises and searched a truck laden with several pallets of 1×6 dressed lumber boards prepared for export. Several pieces of boards were drilled randomly by the ranks, and a whitish substance, believed to be cocaine, was discovered.
The lumber, which belonged to Narine Lall, was packed at a sawmill at Lookout, East Bank Essequibo, to be transported to a wharf in Georgetown before being shipped to the US, CANU said.

According to reports, Vieira is listed on the shipping documents as a representative of the shipper, Lall, for whom, according to CANU, an arrest warrant has been issued.
Tazim was placed before the court, charged for his role in another cocaine matter.
The 43-year-old was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice last year September, following the discovery of over nine kilograms of cocaine.