Four years jail for man found guilty of trafficking Jamaicans in Guyana

A 44-year-old man was Thursday sentenced to four years imprisonment after he was found guilty of trafficking two Jamaican nationals.

The sentence was handed down by Magistrate Wanda Fortune at the Linden Magistrate’s Court following an eight-month-long trial.

The News Room was reliably informed that Tito Brown also known as ‘Tommy’ and ‘Yankee’ was arrested by the police on April 28, 2021, one day after a wanted bulletin was issued for him.

He was charged with two counts of trafficking in persons and on each count, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment. The sentences will run concurrently.

Browne was also accused of withholding the passports of the two Jamaican women. For that offence, he was slapped with a one-year sentence and fined $200,000. He was also ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution to the victims.

According to the prosecution’s facts, one of the victims met an individual in Jamaica in November 2020 who informed him that Browne had some farming work for him to do in Kara Kara Creek, Linden and he was paying US$5,000 for the job.

The first victim then informed the other and together they arranged with Browne, who promised to facilitate their travel expenses.

The victims left Jamaica for Guyana in December 2020.

Upon arrival at the campsite at Kara Kara Creek, the News Room was told that Browne informed the victims that they would be spending six months there and he confiscated their passports.

The prosecution facts further stated that from April 2021, the victims worked at the camp but were never paid. The victims related that they were only able to contact their relatives using Browne phone and were not allowed to travel from the campsite.

Eventually, they met a logger who took them to the police and a report was filed, the facts stated.

An investigation was immediately launched which eventually led to Browne’s arrest and prosecution.