2 years’ jail, $11M fine for foreign nationals in unmarked aircraft

The two foreign nationals who illegally landed an aircraft at an airstrip at Mahdia, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) earlier this month were on Friday each sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fined $11 million on additional charges.
The men, Juan David Caicedo Villa, a 32-year-old pilot of Villavicencio, Colombia; and Gustavo Adolfo Riascos Gomez, a 48-year-old pilot/businessman of Tachira San Cristobal, Venezuela, appeared in Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan’s Georgetown court and pleaded guilty to the charges which alleged that, on November 4, at Mahdia, they interfered with the registration and identification mark of the aircraft, operated a civil aircraft without a certificate and insurance, and operated the aircraft recklessly.

As it relates to operating the plane without a certificate and insurance, they were sentenced to two years in prison. On the other charges, the men were fined a total of $11 million. Failure to pay the sum would result in default imprisonment for three years. The sentences will run concurrently.
Last week, the Colombian and Venezuelan nationals were charged with illegally entering Guyana and possession of two grammes of marijuana. They both denied the charges, and were remanded to prison.
A Police report said that ranks of the Mahdia Police Station observed the aircraft circling the Mahdia airstrip in an attempt to land at about 18:00h on November 4. As a result, a party of Policemen immediately went to the airstrip. On arrival, they saw a six-seater Piper Aire blue, red and white aircraft on the ground in front of the Trans Guyana hangar.
Police ranks observed the two men standing in front of the aircraft talking with the security guard and ramp attendant. When confronted by the Police, one of the men said, “We are lost, we came from Venezuela and going to look for gold”.
The aircraft contained three 15-gallon drums, two of which contained fuel; one hammock with net, one bag containing clothing and personal effects, and a black bag with identification cards, documents, one Garmin GPS, one Iridium Phone, one Icom radio set, one spot trace device, two phone chargers, one earpiece, one lighter, one torchlight, one Motorola phone, one Samsung phone, one knife, two wristwatches, one wallet, two grams of suspected cannabis, and bamboo wrap.