More GDF soldiers busted transporting drugs in uniform
Police Special Branch operatives on Saturday night arrested two Guyana Defense Force Ranks who were caught red-handed transporting 316 pounds of narcotics across the city. The soldiers were intercepted on Mandela Avenue behind the botanical Gardens.
Police sources have indicated that just after 21:00hrs Saturday, a party of policemen headed by a Deputy Assistant Superintendent of Police stopped a Route 42 minibus with registration plate BTT 27. There were two males in the minibus at the time and they were both identified as Guyana Defense Force ranks and fully clad in their uniforms.
40 Year-old 20311 Corporal Edward McCalmont of 1110 Kaneville, East Bank Demerara, and 24-year-old 25411 Lance Corporal John Johnson of 146 Timehri, East Bank Demerara are the two soldiers now detained. McCalmont was the driver at the time.
The arrests of the soldiers were intelligence-led. The police told the soldiers that they were informed that the minibus was ferrying narcotics and therefore requested to search the vehicle and its occupants.
The men allowed the search to be carried and it was there that several bulky parcels were found in the bus. It was later examined and found to be narcotics. The narcotics and the minibus have since been lodged with the police.
Just last week, the police nabbed two other soldiers who were using a registered Guyana Defense Force vehicle to ferry narcotics across the country. Head of the Guyana Defense Force Omar Khan called the development a professional embarrassment.
