Convicted drug trafficker granted bail over Craig St cocaine bust

Mark Gomes, the 38-year-old man who was convicted of trafficking cocaine in 2018 and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, was on Monday granted bail on a similar charge.
Gomes, who was arrested on September 9 with an alleged quantity of cocaine, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on September 9, he had 24.4 grams of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking. The accused, who was represented by attorney, Siand Dhurjon, is scheduled to return to court on October 3.
Gomes and his father, Andre Gomes also called ‘’Zipper’’, 61, were arrested last Friday after an operation was conducted at Lots 32 and 34 Craig Street, Campbellville, Georgetown.
Ranks of the Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU) searched properties at Lots 32 and 34 Craig Street, Campbellville, Georgetown—the latter a known drug yard—and found several transparent glass tubes labelled lidocaine and a quantity of cocaine.
At the time of the operation, Andre and Mark were at the locations. As such, they were arrested and escorted to CANU headquarters along with cocaine and transparent glass tubes.
No charges were, however, instituted against Andre by CANU but he remains under probe.
Meanwhile, CANU, in a statement on Saturday, said that: “To ensure that children are safeguarded from illegal drugs, CANU will continue to undertake similar operations on known drug yards that are in close proximity to schools.”

Mark’s conviction
In July 2018, Mark and Mohamed Kadir were each sentenced to four years’ imprisonment after they were found guilty of trafficking almost six pounds of cocaine on March 29, 2018.
It was CANU’s case that on the day in question, its ranks saw two motor vehicles on Sheriff Street, Georgetown, one driven by Gomes and the other by Kadir.
Kadir exited his vehicle with a yellow Shell gas bottle, which he took to PMM 5807, where Gomes was seated in the driver’s side. A third man, Brian Fowler, who was also jailed for four years after pleading guilty to trafficking in narcotics, was observed as a passenger in Gomes’s vehicle when CANU ranks confronted them. The cocaine was subsequently found.
In addition to the jail terms, the three men were each fined $6 million.
Mark has since appealed his conviction and sentence and is currently on bail pending the hearing and determination of that matter.

Previous charges
Meanwhile, back in October 2021, Andre and another man, Eon Joseph, were arrested by CANU after two kilograms of cocaine was found at his Craig Street, Campbellville property.
While Joseph pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to three years in prison together with a $6 million fine, Andre denied the charge and was remanded to prison. He was subsequently admitted to bail. <<<Guyana Times>>> is unaware of the legal status of the charge against him.
Andre Gomes had previously been charged with drug trafficking, but was never convicted.
In July 2018, Andre, after spending five months on remand, was freed on a charge which alleged that he trafficked 902 grams of cocaine on January 30, 2018, at his Campbellville home.
Three years before that case, Gomes was arrested and charged for the shooting to death of a taxi driver on Main Street, Georgetown. He had been charged with the May 10, 2015 murder of Nigel Isaacs of Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Georgetown, but the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) later withdrew the charge, citing insufficient evidence. (G1)