Bail hearing for Guyanese women on cocaine rap set for April 20

WESTERN BUREAU:

The two Guyanese women who were arrested and charged after reportedly being held with 21 pounds of cocaine at the Sangster International Airport, in Montego Bay, on April 4, had their bail application deferred to April 20, when they made their first appearance in the St James Parish Court yesterday.

The two Guyanese women, Oshaura Moses, 21, and Abiki Moses, 27, both of Georgetown, are charged with possession of cocaine, dealing in cocaine, taking steps to export cocaine, and conspiring to export cocaine.

During the women’s brief appearance before presiding parish judge Sasha-Marie Ashley, their attorney Henry McCurdy requested that their bail hearing be deferred to allow him more time to have further discussions with his clients. The women were remanded in custody pending their reappearance in court.

“I have been given statements and I have read them, and I will ask for a further date to take further instructions,” said McCurdy.

McCurdy was not the only one who was not ready to go forward with the case as the court was also told that the prosecution’s case file was incomplete as the forensic certificate was still outstanding.

The allegations against the women are that, on Tuesday, April 4, at about 7:30 p.m., they were checking in at the airport to board an outgoing flight to London, England, when a search of their luggage by airport security revealed false compartments containing cocaine. The women each had 10.5 pounds of the drug.

Following the discovery of the cocaine, which is estimated to have a combined street value of $120 million, the women were arrested and charged.

The case against the Guyanese defendants is the latest in a string of recent cases involving the seizure of cocaine, valued at millions of dollars, which has come before the St James Parish Court.

Presently, there is a high-profile case before the court involving Montego Bay businessmen Robert Dunbar, Delroy Gayle, and Louis Smith, and United States citizen Melford Daley, who were arrested and charged in 2013 after being accused of being involved in an international drug ring, which spanned the period 1999 to 2005.

On November 28, 2022, St James Parish Court Judge Kaysha Grant-Pryce complained about the parish becoming a haven for cocaine trafficking, with the practice being prevalent enough that traffickers were allegedly using courier services to carry out their illicit activities in a bid to circumvent the police’s efforts to stamp out the trade.

At that time, Grant-Pryce was presiding over the bail hearing of British national Ashanta Ferguson, who was arrested and charged after she was allegedly held with two kilogrammes of cocaine.