The Director of Public Prosecutions has been asked to decide if there is enough evidence to send the former chairman of Goddard Enterprises Ltd (GEL), one of his former directors and a sailor to trial, for attempting to smuggle just over $1/2 million worth of cannabis into Barbados on board a GEL yacht last year.
The development came as Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing Arthur Charles Herbert, the former GEL chairman and head of the Barbados Private Sector Association, and former GEL director Christopher Glenn Rogers, queried where was the evidence linking his clients to the charge.
Herbert, 63, of Redland Plantation, St George, and Rogers, 57, of No. 27, York Road, Navy Gardens, Christ Church, along with 55-year-old Walter O’Neal Prescod, a sailor, of No. 107, Emerald Park East, St Philip, were back in District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday. They are facing charges of importation, possession, possession with intent to supply and trafficking in 267.4 pounds of cannabis worth $534 160, on July 23, 2018. The drugs were allegedly found on board the GEL yacht Ecstasy.
Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent Trevor Blackman, said: “In relation to the matter, in going forward, I have requested a directive from the Director of Public Prosecutions . . . . Hence I have sent our file to the Director, so I am awaiting a response from her in relation to this matter.”
Pilgrim had earlier asked the Crown to show where, in the file, did the statements point to his clients having knowledge or control of the drugs. (HLE)
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