ELFANNANDO Newman, a police sergeant, was on Wednesday released on $100,000 bail for allegedly stealing a quantity of cannabis from the Timehri Police Station. The cannabis was being kept as evidence following a drug “bust.”

Newman, of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, appeared before Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrate’s Court charged with larceny by a public officer.

Newman denied that between February 27, 2021, and March 1, 2021, at the Timehri Police Station, while being employed by the Guyana Police Force he stole three large bulky parcels of cannabis sativa weighing 3,122 grams, which were received or taken into possession by him by virtue of his employment.

The matter was adjourned until July 8, 2022.

According to a report from the special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), on February 27, 2021, ranks stationed at the Highway Police Patrol Base searched a motor car that had three occupants, two males and a female, and found three large parcels of leaves, seeds, and stems suspected to be narcotics and weighing about 45 to 50 pounds.

One of the males who was the driver of the car offered the rank who found the narcotics, $2 million and three ounces of gold, but the rank refused the offer.

The narcotics and three suspects were escorted to the Timehri Police Station and handed over to Detective Sergeant Newman, who weighed the narcotics and claimed that it was 3,122 grams.

Newman reportedly failed to lodge the narcotics that were handed over to him. As a result, SOCU launched an investigation which revealed that Newman had allegedly stolen the narcotics. He was arrested and later charged.