Farook Baksh, a 44-year-old boat captain, known as ‘Dive and Shoot’ appeared before Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool on Monday charged with the possession of 91.132 kilogrammes of cocaine and 56.008 kilogrammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.
The illegal drugs were found onboard a fishing vessel at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara on July 14, 2018.
He appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Baksh cried throughout his court appearance and begged the court to be released on bail.
Prosecutor of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Narissa Leander objected and told the court that Baksh is a flight risk since he was only apprehended on June 12, after being on the run for almost two years.
The Magistrate agreed with the Prosecutor and remanded Baksh to prison until July 8.
The News Room had reported that in the early morning hours of July 14, 2018, CANU ranks conducted an operation on the East Coast of Demerara where several locations used for docking of fishing vessels along the East Coast Sea Wall were inspected.
However, sometime after 04:00h a suspected fishing vessel which was seen approaching a docking location at the Mon Repos Channel was eventually interdicted.
A search of the vessel revealed 82 parcels cocaine weighing 91.132 kg (over 200lbs) and 98 parcels of cannabis weighing 56.008 kg (over 123lbs).
