Bajan Officer nabbed for drugs

Sub-Lieutenant Sheldon Norville Mitchell, a Bajan Coastguard Officer, and four Vincentians were nabbed by members of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coastguard in the Richmond Bay waters aboard a white pirogue boat that allegedly had drugs.{{more}}

When he appeared before her at the Serious Offences Court on Friday, December 12, Chief Magistrate, Sonya Young remanded the Eagle Hall, St.Michael, Barbados, man to Her Majesty’s Prisons until April 2009. She granted his Vincentian colleagues bail in the sum of $30,000 each.

The 26-year-old Mitchell was jointly charged with Steve De Roche, of Frenches, Kamal De Roche, of Sion Hill, Alwyn Ross, of Fair Hall, and Jamal Grant, of McKie’s Hill, for having in their possession marijuana in three packages that amounted to approximately 30 pounds. They all pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, a reliable source told SEARCHLIGHT that men in a white pirogue were chased in Barbados waters on Thursday, December 11, 2008, by the authorities there who were able to recover over 400 pounds of marijuana, after the men dumped the drugs in the waters.

Police Public Relations Officer, Station Sergeant Anthony Depeiza, in an interview with the Barbados Nation Newspaper, said the recovery in the waters of Cluffs, St. Lucy, Barbados, was made by the Barbados police drug squad, the marine division and the Regional Security System who were carrying out a training exercise in the north.

The defendants were represented by Lawyer Arthur Williams.