CANU officer & GRA employee released on $750k bail each
A former Communications Officer at the Department of Public Information (DPI), was among three persons charged this morning over a $60M cocaine bust that was made at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD), last week Friday.
Charged are: Ex media worker, Zanneel Nirmala Williams, 25, of 181 Lamaha Gardens, Georgetown; former Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU) officer Anil Sookhoo, 33, of 127 Kuru Kuru Linden-Soesdyke Highway; and Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) officer 27-year-old Shameka Caesar, of Lot ZZ, Durban Street, Worthmanville, Georgetown.
They appeared before Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrates’ Courts. Williams pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking charge and was remanded to prison pending sentencing which is scheduled for May 30. The Magistrate also ordered that a probation report be compiled on the young woman.
Sookhoo and Caesar, on the other hand, denied the charge. They were ordered to post bail in the sum of $750, 000 each. The duo will return to court next month.
They Break News understands that Williams was an outgoing passenger on a Jetblue flight destined for JFK International Airport, New York, USA when a CANU officer found a quantity of cocaine concealed in the walls of a laptop that was inside of her hand luggage.
She was arrested and escorted to CANU headquarters in Georgetown for further questioning. Williams was further searched at CANU headquarters where a quantity of cocaine was found strapped to her body. Based on information, CANU officers arrested Sookhoo and Caesar.
The cocaine had a total weight of 9.628 kilogrammes. “The narcotics had a total street value of over GY$5 million and a street value of US $300,000,” CANU said.
US $300,000 is equivalent to GY $60M.
The cocaine that was found in Zanneel Williams’ luggage
