The Royal Bahamas Police Force now has some explaining to do after a suspect in court revealed that one of his co-accused escaped police custody over the weekend in Bimini.
Sean Livingston Solomon, 40, of Grand Bahama, was about to be arraigned when Magistrate Andrew Forbes realised he wasn’t even in the courtroom.
According to police reports, 26-year-old Anderro Clarke and 19-year-old Kareem Chea, both of Bimini were caught with 411 pounds of marijuana on Saturday, October 5th on that island.
The men were charged with conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs with intent to supply and possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply.
Because Solomon had allegedly escaped police custody this weekend, Magistrate Forbes issued a warrant for his arrest and the prosecution informed the magistrate that police in Bimini had already begun searching for him.
The Bahama Journal made several attempts to contact both Assistant Commissioner Everick Seymour and the Officer in Charge of the South Bimini Police Station, but none of the men could be reached.
As for Chea and Clarke, they pleaded not guilty to both charges and will remain on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) until March 24th and 25th,2014 when they will return to court.
Also in that courtroom, a 48-year-old man pleaded guilty to possession of dangerous drugs.
Charles Laroda confessed to being in possession of marijuana in his dorm at HMP.
Laroda is already serving a two-year sentence, but according to reports, he was caught on Saturday with the drugs tied to the drawstring of his pants while police were carrying out a search.
Although he pleaded guilty to the charge, Laroda insisted the drugs weren’t his as he had just come from the barber and left his pants on the bed.
He said after returning to his dorm he put the pants on and that’s when police came and did their search.
But after a back and forth with the magistrate, Laroda confessed once again he was in possession of the 1 3/8 ounce of marijuana.
He was denied bail and was sentenced to an additional year in prison
