Multimillion dollar cocaine case faces More delays

Western Bureau:

The three-year-old cocaine case against a former Guardsman employee and another St James man did not continue in the St James Parish Court on Tuesday as was scheduled.

In fact, the case did not come up for mention.

The two men, former guardsman employee Owen Glaze and his co-accused Andrew Brown, was arrested in 2013 after 66 kilogrammes of cocaine was allegedly found inside the Guardsman service vehicle in which they were travelling along the Mt Carey main road.

When checks about the status of the case were made with the office of the clerk of the court, The Gleaner was told that the men are slated to return to court on July 12.

Glaze and Brown, who are now facing charges of possession of, dealing in, taking steps to export cocaine, and trafficking cocaine, were arrested on April 20, 2013, by officers from the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, the Transnational Crime and Narcotics Division, and the Jamaica Defence Force, who were conducting an operation following another in St James.

J$264 million worth of cocaine

It is alleged that during the police operation, the defendants' vehicle was stopped and searched, and cocaine valued at approximately J$264 million was found stashed away among other items.

Since the men were arrested, a number of trial dates have been set, dating back to as far as July 8, 2014.

However, on each occasion, the matter was put off for varying reasons. At the most recent trial date in April, seven witnesses were slated to give testimony for the prosecution; however, the absence of one of the defence attorneys prevented the case from getting off the ground.