Bourda man granted bail 5 months after charged with drug trafficking
After spending five months on remand, 35-year-old Yancy Garraway of North Road, Bourda, Georgetown was on Thursday granted bail in the sum of $600,000 on a drug trafficking charge.
Senior Magistrate Leron Daly, presiding at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, granted the accused bail on condition that he lodges his passport with the Clerk of Court and reports to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) every Friday at 09:00h.
The cocaine and marijuana that were discovered at the Smyth Street, Georgetown premises
During his initial arraignment in December of last year, Garraway had pleaded not guilty to separate charges which alleged that on December 2, 2022, he had 3.312 kilograms of cocaine and 1.520 kilograms of cannabis sativa (marijuana) in his possession for the purpose of trafficking. The case will be called again on May 31 for disclosure.
Yancy Garraway
Besides Garraway, the others arrested in relation to the drug bust were: Samantha Nascimento, 32, and Javed Ragnauth, both of 89 Smyth Street, Charlestown, Georgetown; and Charles Jones, a 48-year-old miner of Four Miles Housing Scheme in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
Ragnauth, however, pleaded guilty to two narcotics trafficking charges when he made a virtual appearance before former Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
In relation to the charge of trafficking 3.312 kilograms of cocaine, worth $4,968,000, Ragnauth has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and fined $6,336,000. And he has been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and fined $129,000 for trafficking 1.520 kilograms of cannabis, valued at $656,000. The sentences are to run concurrently.
It has been reported that several men and a woman were arrested by ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) following a surveillance operation conducted on December 2, 2022 in the vicinity of Church Street in Georgetown.
Jailed: Javed Ragnauth
The operation involved CANU ranks observing a suspicious transaction, as a result of which the officers pursued Ragnauth to his residence at 89 Smyth Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, where a subsequent search unearthed five brick-like parcels, amounting to 3.3 kilograms of cocaine, and two plastic bags containing 1.520 kilograms of cannabis.
