Former Customs Officer Sherwayne DeAbreu, of Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, and businessman Tazim Gafoor, of Menzies Street, Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, were on Thursday sentenced to five years in prison after they were found guilty of trafficking 84.986 kilograms of cocaine in dressed lumber.
In addition to the prison sentence, the two men were fined $178.4 million.
The two other accused, race car driver Nazim Gafoor and motorcycle ace rider Stephen Vieira were found not guilty owing to lack of evidence. This was the ruling of Magistrate Rushelle Liverpool at the conclusion of the trial at the Leonora
The four accused: Sherwayne DeAbreu (jailed); Stephen Vieira (acquitted); Nazim Gafoor (acquitted) and Tazim Gafoor (jailed)
Magistrate’s Court.
The decision did not go down well with the defence attorneys and as such, they related that the ruling would be appealed.
The quartet was initially charged for aiding Hakim Mohamed to traffic the cocaine between March 1 and May 2, 2017. Mohamed was not charged, but was used by the prosecution as the main witness during the trial.
The men were represented by a team of high-ranking lawyers, including Latchmie Rahamat, Everton Lammy-Singh, Glenn Hanoman, and Nigel Hughes while the State was represented by Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Prosecutor Konyo Sandiford.
It was reported that during the trial, Mohamed told the court that DeAbreu, along with another man, had taken 99 cocaine bricks to Narine Lall’s lumberyard where he worked and that Tazim Gafoor was on hand to uplift same.
Magistrate Liverpool, during her ruling, told the court that the main witness had given detailed information implicating DeAbreu and Gafoor, noting that her sentence should reflect society’s condemnation of drug trafficking.
Last May, ranks of the Unit swooped down on a lumberyard at Lot 227 Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), where they conducted a search on a truck that was laden with several pallets of 1×6 dressed lumber that was being prepared for export to the United States. A total of 84.986 kilograms of cocaine was discovered stashed in the lumber.
An investigation led to the arrest of the Gafoors, Vieira, DeAbreu and Mohammed. The Gafoors and Vieira appeared before Magistrate Liverpool and pleaded not guilty to the charge read to them.
That charge stated that between March 1, 2017 and May 12, 2017, they aided Hakeem Mohammed in trafficking 84.986 kilograms of cocaine at Narine Lall’s Sawmill at Lookout, Parika, EBE. They were all remanded to prison.
However, acting Chief Justice Roxane George granted bail to the younger Gafoor and Vieira when their Attorneys, Latchmie Rahamat and Stanley Moore made a bail petition in the High Court. The older Gafoor, along with DeAbreu, was also later granted bail.
