Two prison officers will be sharing cell space with inmates they were employed to watch over after they charged and remanded for drug trafficking.
The officers 22-year-old Cleveland Cross and 24-year-old Abdool Farook appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court to answer to the charges.
The young officers were jointly charged with having 434 grams of cannabis in their possession for the purpose of trafficking on May 27.
The Court was told that the Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels acting information contacted the police force with intelligence received, the men were found by the officers at Avenue of Republic. A search was carried out on the two and the drugs found in Cross’s haversack. According to Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield, Cross said he was given the drugs by Farook to keep which was corroborated by Farook.
However, the men denied the charge with Farook through his attorney Moti Singh told the court that the drugs were not found on his client but on the other prisoner officer in the vehicle.
It was reported that one of the officers accepted $20,000 to take the drugs into the prison. This bust came some weeks after prison officials launched an investigation as to how inmates were able to access alcohol and drugs in their cells on Mother’s Day.