A Dominican Republic man who is no stranger to trafficking narcotics is expected to spend his 18 months as a guest of the state after he admitted to trafficking 36 pounds of marijuana destined for a Barbados Market.
The Dominican, Freddy Diaz Cabrera; Eustace Rodrigues, called Fine, of Albouys Street, Albouystown, Georgetown; and his child mother, Epiphany McLennan, all appeared before Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus to have the charge read to them.
It is alleged that Cabrera and McLennan at the GNIC Wharf, Lombard Street, Georgetown on the January 19, trafficked 16.046 kgs (36 lbs.) of “Creppy” Marijuana.
It was further alleged that Rodrigues on January 18, also trafficked the very drugs in the Albouystown area.
The two, McLennan and Rodrigues, who are both Guyanese, denied the allegation made against them. However, Cabrera who was sentenced back in 2001 for cocaine trafficking, admitted to the offence claiming that Rodrigues gave him the drugs to transport to Barbados to an unknown person. McLennan also played a part in the handling of the drugs.
With a guilty plea before the court, Cabrera was sentenced to four, six-month terms in prison along with a fine of $14m after the Magistrate noted his early guilty plea and also the fact that he was sentenced in the past for a similar offence.
According to the report from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) on the incident on January 19, 2022, ranks conducted a narcotics operation at the GNIC Wharf, Lombard Street, Georgetown.
During the said operation ranks from the Special Operations section conducted a search on a vessel that was scheduled to leave Port Georgetown later that morning with a quantity of cement.
In the vessel, several parcels suspected to be cannabis were discovered throughout the vessel during this search. The vessel is foreign-registered, with a crew of 19 foreign nationals. All were arrested.
The parcels, along with the vessel’s crew, were taken to the CANU headquarters for further processing. The marijuana was tested and found to be a foreign type known as ” creepy ” with a total weight of 16.046 kgs (36 lbs.), and a street value of approximately $14 million (US$68,293).
The operation is said to be a part of an ongoing multi-agency and multi-national investigation aimed at dismantling a regional network involved in the movement of narcotics from Guyana using cargo vessels.
