TWO foreigners, on Tuesday, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court charged with entering Guyana illegally and having cannabis in their possession.

Juan David Caicedo Villa, a 32-year-old pilot of Villavicencio, Colombia, and Gustavo Adolfo Riascos Gomez, a 48-year-old pilot/businessman of Tachira San Cristobal, Venezuela were remanded to prison until November 16.

The men pleaded not guilty to the first charge which alleged that they entered Guyana illegally on November 4, 2021. The men further denied that on the same day in question, they had two grammes of cannabis in their possession.

According to reports, the pilot and his co-pilot landed their foreign-registered aircraft without authorization at Mahdia, Region Eight.

As a result, a party of policemen immediately went to the airstrip and found the six-seater Piper Aire aircraft — blue, red and white in colour — in front of Trans Guyana’s hangar. At the time, the two foreigners were standing in front of the said aircraft talking to the security and ramp attendant.

When confronted by the police, one of the men spoke in English saying, “We are lost, we came from Venezuela and going to look for gold.”

Apart from the cannabis, the aircraft contained three 15-gallon drums, two of which contained fuel; one hammock with netting, one bag containing clothing and personal effects, a black bag with identification cards, documents, one Garmin GPS, one Iridium Phone, one Icom radio set, one spot trace device, two phone chargers, one earpiece, one lighter, one torchlight, one Motorola phone, one Samsung phone, one knife, two wristwatches, one wallet and bamboo wraps.