CANU rank testifies in ‘cocaine in engine oil bottle’ trial

Rawle Mohan, an agent of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), on Thursday testified before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan against Mark Gomes, the son of Andre “Zipper” Gomes, and Mohammed Kadir, also called ‘Puddock,’ another accused in a narcotics trafficking charge.
The two men have been charged after they were caught with a quantity of cocaine hidden in an engine oil bottle.
Gomes and two other men were arrested as agents of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) intercepted the vehicles in which they were travelling during a drop-off along Sheriff Street.
Officer Mohan told the court that on March 29, 2018, he received from his superior officer information and instructions to swoop down on the men.
“Officer Roberts, another officer and I entered the CANU vehicle and proceeded to Sheriff Street, where I carried out a search of two vehicles, PMM5807 driven by Gomes and PNN7906 driven by Kadir, both cars white in colour”.
According to Mohan, at 19:15h on the day in question, CANU ranks had positioned their vehicle in a southerly direction on Sherriff Street when they noticed motor car PMM 5807 parked in front of a bar in front of John Smith and Tinning Cup Streets in Campbellville.
“From the position I was in, I could have seen Mark Gomes, who is known to me, sitting in the said car with the vehicle glass (wound) down,” Mohan testified.
After 27 minutes of surveillance, Mohan recalled, he saw a white motor car, PNN 7906, approaching, and it suddenly stopped and parked in front of Gomes’s car, after which Kadir excited with a yellow bottle in his hand.
Mohan noted that Kadir proceeded to the front seat of Gomes’s car and handed him the said bottle. “It was at the time I told officer Roberts (that) I had my target in sight,” he testified.
Mohan then proceeded to the parked vehicle and identified himself as a CANU officer, then he instructed Gomes and Kadir to exit.
“As I conducted the search, I found a 4-litre 20-50 Shell engine oil bottle in the front passenger seat. As I picked it up, I felt that it was weighty, then I noticed that the bottom of the bottle was partially cut open. I looked inside and I saw two bricklike objects wrapped in a clear plastic,” Mohan testified.
Photographs of the scene were taken, and the men were subsequently arrested and taken to CANU headquarters for questioning. The suspected cocaine was examined, tested and weighed. It amounted to 2.25 kilograms.
In January this year, Andre “Zipper” Gomes was arrested and remanded to prison after he was busted with a large quantity of cocaine.
‘Zipper’s’ reputed wife was, in 2017, sentenced to four years in jail after she had pleaded guilty to stashing a large quantity of cocaine in a cooking gas cylinder.