Berbice man busted with ganja charged, remanded

Lalbahdur Byjoo, a 56-year-old resident of Plantation Hope, Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, who was busted with nine kilograms of cannabis on Thursday, appeared on Friday before Leonora Magistrate Alisha George to answer a charge of possession of narcotics, and has been remanded to prison until July 30, 2024.
No stranger to ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the charge Byjoo faces alleges that CANU ranks, acting on information received, travelled to Parika, East Bank Essequibo on Thursday, and observed Byjoo sitting in the driver’s seat of a motorcar. The officers searched the vehicle and unearthed three parcels wrapped in transparent plastic on the back seat and another such parcel in the trunk. Each of these parcels was found to contain ganja.

Byjoo was told of the offence committed, cautioned, arrested, and taken to CANU Headquarters, where the cannabis, when weighed, amounted to nine kilograms.
A charge was immediately instituted against Byjoo.
Byjoo had been arrested in 2022 and later charged after being intercepted with 52 kilograms of cannabis during a police roadblock at Beterverwagting Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara. CANU had said the suspect was driving Route 50 minibus BXX 6792 which was transporting the narcotics.
Byjoo had been remanded to prison on that occasion, but had later secured bail pending trial.