FOLLOWING a raid at the Diamond Hotel and nightclub, at George Street, Werk-en-Rust, a Cuban was on Friday, February 8, 2019, arraigned before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court for overstaying in Guyana.

Dailyn Garcia made her appearance before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly, and with the aid of an interpreter, admitted that on February 5, 2019, at Georgetown, she failed to comply with conditions that permitted her to stay in Guyana from December 28, 2018, to January 1, 2018. Garcia was fined $30,000 and deported to her homeland.

The Guyana Chronicle had earlier reported that Garcia, along with 14 others, believed to be strippers, were, on Tuesday, February 05, 2019, detained by ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), following a raid at the Diamond Hotel and Night Club.

The raid was prompted following a video circulating on social media, which showed Garcia jumping over a locked gate to get into the Diamond Hotel and Night Club compound.
The woman was being assisted by four of her ‘friends’ who were on the other side of the fence. They were holding up the security barb wire so that the woman could have gained entry.

Hours after the video ‘hit’ social media, police raided the compound and detained the 15 women, whom the investigators suspected to be victims of ‘trafficking in persons’ (TIP).
Meanwhile, the proprietor of the night club and hotel, Freeman Fordyce, was recently handed a four-year suspended sentence by Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty, after being found guilty of gun and ammunition charges.

Fordyce is currently on trial for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
He was charged after a video footage showed him (Fordyce) resisting being searched and then punching Inspector Narine in the face.

The police subsequently removed a number of women, including Venezuelans, from the premises. The ranks reportedly searched Fordyce’s club while conducting a TIP investigation.
In January, Fiona Hopkinson, an employee of the night club, was charged for trafficking four Venezuelan women and forcing them to work as strippers at the entity.

She was also charged for withholding the women’s travel documents.
In 2018, Hopkinson and Rodwell Dempster, another employee of the entity, were jointly charged for trafficking five Venezuelans for sexual exploitation at the same night club and hotel.