2013 cocaine in boulanger bust: Mother of three lands in jail

Onlookers in Court Three of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts were left stunned on Monday as a mother of three, who was caught with over 27 pounds of cocaine in 12 crates of boulanger, was sentenced to 56 months imprisonment.

In a 2013 Police report, it was stated that 39-year-old Badmattie Persaud was stoical as she was read the charges of drug possession with the purpose of trafficking. However, this was not the case on Monday as tears ran steadily down the defendant’s cheeks on the last day of the trial when Persaud was read her fate.

It was in November 2013 that the mother of three was arrested for spearheading the trafficking of 27.183 pounds of cocaine in several craters of boulangers which were headed for Canada.

In the courtroom on Monday, Magistrate Judy Latchman gave the defendant the chance once more to give her account of what transpired. Persaud told the court that she does no shipping, stating that she is the owner of T&R Seafood, and Tazim Gafoor, who was her boyfriend at one point, is the person who exports goods.

Persaud said that Gafoor had offered her a job at his business, encouraging her to leave her work at the fishery to work at T&R Seafood. It was a month after that she found herself more involved than she warranted when she was called upon to mediate between some friends in exporting goods.

On the fateful day when the crates of boulanger were to be shipped to Canada, Persaud stated that it was Tazim who said she would accompany Nazim Gafoor to pick up the boulanger and drop them at the airport. Persaud reiterated that neither of them knew what was in the boulangers. She said that she had handed over the items at the airport, adding that she had not packed them into the crates.

She said when she was told that cocaine was in the vegetables she called her boyfriend and he said he knew nothing about it. He had advised her to go home and wait, upon which he contacted her and told her to go to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and tell them that she did not pick up the boulanger from the market.

Persaud continued by telling the court that she had gotten herself a lawyer who asked her some questions and a statement was written for her, however, she stated that she was unaware at the time that it was a statement she was making.

Her lawyer, Mohan Rampersaud, had asked her to sign the statement and she did so – first saying she had done so without reading as she could not read, then saying that her lawyer had read it out loud to herself and a third party but she was not asked to comment on anything but simply sign. She said the statement then went to the East La Penitence Police Station. She never saw her lawyer again.

In her closing statements the defendant urged the court to believe her ignorance in all that had transpired in relation to the cocaine that was found.

However, Police Prosecutor, Inspector Stephen Telford, in his closing remarks told the court that the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that Persaud did indeed have intention to smuggle the cocaine out of Guyana to Canada. He asked the court to not be lenient with the defendant but to let the defendant be seen as an example against all potential drug traffickers as there has been a surge in the practice recently.

He detailed that the prosecution has proven that the defendant had possession of 21.330 kg cocaine, and the statements of their main witnesses Parmadeo Persaud, also known as “Basil” and CANU Officer Yugesh Babulall show that she was aware of the cocaine in the vegetables.

Police Prosecutor, Inspector Telford reminded the court that Basil had informed that it was he who had purchased the boulangers for the defendant while Officer Babulall had found the white substance inside of the vegetables in the presence of Basil. He stated that the Officer had become suspicious when the head of a boulanger had fallen off when he had examined them, as they had looked unusual.

He elaborated that the unusualness was based on the discoloured heads of the produce. This and the fact that he had never known a boulanger’s head to just fall off had made the CANU Officer check further, cutting a boulanger in half and finding packets of white substance in the middle of it.

He said the Officer had the items taken to CANU Headquarters where all the boulangers were checked and the white substance verified as cocaine.

Magistrate Latchman, in her sum up of the trial said that she had noted that the defendant had signed the statement but afterwards stated that she was unsure of what she had signed although it had been read to her. The Magistrate stated that if there were some discrepancy in the statements, it would have been prudent to point this out when it was initially read.

The Magistrate also stated that the defendant would pick up produce from someone she did not know is quite suspicious. She said she does not believe the defendant’s account that Basil had taken the items and boxed them off but the defendant did this, as was substantiated by Charles in his testimony.

Magistrate Latchman sentenced Persaud to 56 months imprisonment with a fine of Gy$11,097,000 after considering the value of the cocaine, the method of concealing the items and the fact that the defendant had already been in jail for two years.