THE owner of D&D Pawn Shop, Andre Gomes, called ‘Zipper’ and a 33-year-old man are currently in custody at Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Headquarters, following the discovery of $2 million worth of cocaine in Gomes’ Craig Street, Campbellville home.

The Guyana Chronicle was made to understand that Gomes, 61, and Eon Joseph were arrested on Tuesday night shortly after two kilograms of cocaine was found during a CANU raid.

Gomes is no stranger to law enforcement officials. In June 2015, a murder charge was withdrawn against him by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) due to insufficient evidence. He had been 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.

Then in 2018, Gomes was freed of a drug trafficking charge by City Magistrate Leron Daly. He was accused of trafficking 902 grams of cocaine on January 30, 2018 at his Craig Street home.

Also in 2018, Gomes’ son, Mark Gomes,  along with Mohammed Kadir were charged for trafficking 4.9 pounds of cocaine on March 29, 2018, at Sheriff Street.  They were subsequently found guilty and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment together with a fine of $6M.

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 in her Craig Steet house.

Their grandson, a national under-19 cricketer, was jointly charged with the offence but the charge was dismissed after his grandmother “took the rap.”