Two jailed, co-accused freed on cocaine charges

Two men were on Thursday sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment each for trafficking over five kilograms of cocaine, while their co-accused was freed due to insufficient evidence.

Aundre Singh, 57, of Diamond, East Bank Demerara and Clifford Gouveia, 66, of Little Abary, East Coast Demerara (ECD) were found guilty of trafficking 5.582 kilograms of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking on October 3, 2018 at the Rupert Craig Highway in the vicinity of the Kitty seawall, between Pere Street and Queen Street.

They were also fined $11.7M

Thirty-nine-year-old Oneil Charan of Sandy Babb Street, Kitty was found not guilty.

The ruling was handed down by Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at the Georgetown Magistrate’s court.

Prosecutor of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Narissa Leander had told the court that the three men were under surveillance for a while and provided statements to CANU after they were nabbed with the cocaine during a handover.

Meanwhile, Aundre Singh is currently on trial before another court with three separate charges which allege that on October 3, 2018, at his home, at Diamond Housing Scheme, he had 6.6 grams of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.