Drug dealers released on time served

The Court of Appeal has just released two convicted Guyanese drug dealers on time served, in a case Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson said was filled with systemic delays.

Lemme Michael Campbell and Rohan Shastri Rambarran were held in November 2005 after they smuggled into Barbados 91.3 kilogrammes of cannabis and 119.4 kilogrammes of cocaine in hollowed out logs of wood.

Rambarran was sentenced to 25 years for trafficking in cannabis and 30 years for trafficking in cocaine, while Campbell got 20 years for trafficking in cannabis and 25 for trafficking in cocaine.

Those concurrent sentences were imposed in December 2009.

They appealed in 2010 and it was heard it 2014.

The Caribbean Court of Justice then ordered the Court of Appeal to expedite its decision in 2016, and yesterday, while the Court of Appeal dismissed the two men’s appeal, it varied the sentences.

Campbell and Rambarran were given time served and escorted out of court by waiting immigration officers. (HLE)