Soesdyke wildlife trader found guilty of trafficking Venezuelans

After being on trial for almost three years, a 65-year-old wildlife trader was on Friday found guilty of trafficking two Venezuelan nationals for labour exploitation.

Feezal Shaw of Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara was on trial before Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

In 2019, Shaw was first arraigned for the two charges and pleaded not guilty.

Particulars of the charges read that between February 14, 2018, and June 14, 2018, at Soesdyke, he engaged in trafficking in persons and recruited, harboured or transported the two men and did not pay them.

On Friday afternoon, Magistrate McGusty found Shaw guilty of the crimes and remanded him to prison pending sentencing.

The Magistrate also ordered that a probation report be prepared for Shaw and deferred sentencing until February 24, 2023.

According to reports, during the month of February 2018, the victims were invited by Shaw to come to Guyana and build cages for him to keep his exotic animals.

When the victims came to Guyana on February 14, 2018, they were allegedly paid for their first three days of work and were not paid until June 1, 2018, when Shaw handed them $100,000 each.

However, when the men asked for the outstanding monies owed, Shaw did not pay them and took away their passports.

Shaw told the men that he would get them an extension of stay in the country but he never returned the documents.