Anyone caught with narcotics will be charged – Singh

Regardless of who you are, once caught with narcotics you will be charged and placed before the court, Head of the Customs AntiNarcotics Unit (CANU) James Singh said last Friday, but stressed that the unit could not make arrests solely on hearsay.

Singh was responding to queries from this newspaper as to why the so-called big fishes were not being arrested and prosecuted; he had just had made a presentation at the launching of the 2016-2020 National Drug Strategy Master Plan.

In response, he said that the terms “big fish” and “drug lord” were coined in the press. He said that anyone who was arrested with narcotics would face the court “irrespective of who they are”.

“So [Barry] Dataram…, whether he is a big fish, a drug lord or whatever, he was a person who was caught with drugs and we applied the law to him.” he stressed.

When it was indicated that the newspaper was referring to the major traffickers or the ones at the top of the scale, Singh said, “At the end of the day, they can’t be arrested based on hearsay. There are a number of persons who are suspected to be involved in narcotics and there are ongoing investigations… One of the biggest problems we have is that persons may say that this person is a drug trafficker, but are they coming to give the evidence? No.”

He said that this is where witness protection comes in. “It’s one thing to say... Unfortunately we can’t prosecute on hearsay. So we have to make sure we have the right evidence.”

Singh said that given the challenges experienced, CANU