Welder remanded on ganja trafficking charge

A 27-year-old man has been remanded after appearing before a city Magistrate for trafficking marijuana. Akeem Archer of Zeelugt Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) appeared in court on Monday. The charge against him read that on March 16, in the Georgetown Magisterial District, he had 2.33 kilograms of cannabis in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Archer, a father of four, pleaded not guilty and was remanded until April 24.
Police Prosecutor Dominic Bess told presiding Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus, that on the day in question, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) ranks conducted an operation in the vicinity of Lombard Street, Georgetown, where they stopped a male carrying a backpack.
A subsequent search of the said backpack led to the discovery of a parcel containing a quantity of seeds, leaves, and stems suspected to be cannabis.
As such, the male, who identified himself as Akeem Archer, was arrested and escorted to CANU Headquarters along with the suspected narcotic which later tested positive for cannabis.
According to CANU, the drug has a street value of $400,000.

After the allegation was put to Archer and he was cautioned in accordance with the Judge’s rule, he reportedly told investigators that he was at a car wash when a man gave him the bag to take to a motor car.
The prosecutor objected to the defendant being released on bail citing that no special reasons as required by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, were advanced.
In his address to the court, Archer, who was unrepresented by counsel, informed that he was released from prison in 2019 after serving a two-year sentence for illegal possession of a firearm.
The accused told the court that he is the sole breadwinner of his family and that his reputed wife is presently six months pregnant. In the end, Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus, after alluding to the serious nature and prevalence of the offence, remanded Archer to prison. (G1)