A MAN and his wife were on Thursday, January 17, 2019 freed of a drug trafficking charge after it was found that the substance which they were indicted for was not in the narcotics act.

Lonsdale Hope, 35, and his common-law wife Shelly-Ann Gilgeous, 28, were charged in April, 2018, and taken before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. They were released on $150,000 bail.

Particulars of the charge read that the couple, on April 23, 2018, at Regent Street, Bourda, had 66 grammes of ‘ecstasy’ in their possession for the purpose of trafficking. On the day in question, ranks from the Police Narcotics Branch intercepted the motor car the couple was in and on the back seat, they reportedly found a woman’s handbag with the ‘suspected’ drug inside.

The matter was later transferred to Magistrate Annett Singh for trial. The couple’s attorney, Dexter Todd, had argued that the substance which was tested was not methamphetamine (ecstasy) and it was not listed in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) act.

Todd had argued that his position was based on the findings of the drug analyst and called for the matter against his clients to be discharged since it was bad in law.
On Thursday, Magistrate Singh, based on the findings of the drug analyst and the lawyer’s argument, discharged the matter against the couple.