Suriname's former police commissioner jailed on drug charges
Published:Tuesday | March 5, 2024 | 9:08 AM
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Suriname's former police commissioner, Ruben Peiter, has been sentenced to seven years in jail after he was found guilty in a criminal case involving the discovery of a quantity of cocaine in September 2021.
Peiter, along with police inspector Dennis Esajas, who was also sentenced to seven years in jail, stood before Justice Maureen Dayala together with three other persons in the criminal case surrounding the discovery of 478 kilograms of cocaine on September 1, 2021.
The case had attracted national attention not only because of the amount of drugs seized, but also the involvement of the retired senior police officers, who were arrested and taken into custody on October 13, 2021.
The police said the drugs were found in a van that was parked in the garage of a house where a 31-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic was arrested. But reports later indicated that she was in a relationship with Rodrigues Marciano 'Mao' Landveld, who was also before the court on the drug related charge.
Landveld, who was arrested on October 10, 2021, was sentenced in absentia to an eight-year prison term for complicity in transporting drugs. He has been on the run since the case started.
The court heard that Peiter and Esajas had driven the van with the drugs from one place to another location. The cocaine is believed to have come from the burned-out plane that was discovered near the Adyumabergi.
Peiter and Esajas were found guilty by the judge of deliberately transporting drugs. For complicity in the intentional transport of drugs, another defendant identified only as GS was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment, less time spent in pre-trial detention.
Another person, Gene K, who was said to have probably rented the van, was acquitted of all charges.
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