CHIEF Magistrate Ann McLennan, on Monday, sentenced a 24-year-old porter to three years’ imprisonment and fined him 19.7M, after he was found guilty on a drug trafficking charge, while his co-accused was acquitted.

Randy Chester was on trial, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, with his co-accused, Christopher Garraway, a 45-year-old driver.

The men were on trial for the charge which read that, on January 16, 2020, at John Fernandes terminal at Back Road, Mandela Avenue, they had 22 kilograms of cannabis and 2.74 kilograms of cocaine, for the purpose of trafficking.

Chester was represented by Amora Giddings while Garraway was represented by attorney-at-law, Siand Dhurjon. The state was represented by Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) prosecutor, Narissa Leander.

The men were allegedly seen and intercepted by the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit while they (Chester and others) were on their way to Berbice with the narcotics in a large rice fertilizer truck. The truck was searched and the narcotics were found.

Chester was found guilty, since he had given CANU ranks a statement admitting to handling the drugs, which were in ‘salt bags’ and loading them into the truck which was to transport the items to the Berbice Bridge, where they were to be collected by someone else.

Although CANU provided the court with video recording of the scene which showed the exchange of the drugs between Garraway and Chester, the Magistrate found that Garraway was not properly identified as the provider of the drugs, since the video only showed him from the side and could not be relied upon as proof.

The Chief Magistrate was left with no other alternative than to acquit Garraway from the charge.

Meanwhile, Chester was found guilty and sentenced to serve 3 years in prison and fined $19,788,000.