By MICHAEL MCLEAN, STAR WriterST. ELIZABETH
FOUR MEN AND a 21-year-old woman who were arrested on firearm, ammunition and ganja charges recently, were remanded in custody when they appeared in the Santa Cruz Resident Magistrate's Court last Thursday.
They are Christopher Roye, 32, a businessman; his cousin Shane Roye, 23, and his employees Marcus Mullings, 19 and Kevin Scott, 24, and Aesha Tai, a store clerk of Accompong district in the parish.
Police records are that at about 5 a.m. on the day in question the Area III and Kingston Narcotics police, acting on intelligence, carried out an operation at Leeds district, St. Elizabeth. During the operation they raided a house occupied by Christopher Roye and allegedly found a Beretta semi-automatic pistol with 10 .40 live rounds inside a toilet bowl of a bathroom of the four bedroom ,two-storey house.
Several applications
It is alleged that the police officers jumped over a wall and entered the house through the garage and went upstairs where they saw Christopher Roye running from a room to the bathroom. It's also alleged that the police searched the house and found a small quantity of ganja inside the kitchen weighing less than one ounce.
The accused and the others, who were seen at the premises, were all taken to the Santa Cruz Police Station and subsequently charged.
Attorney-at-law Norman Godfrey, who is representing all five accused, made several applications for bail on behalf of the woman but this was turned down by the no-nonsense Resident Magistrate Marlene Malahoo-Forte. After she announced that they were all remanded in custody there was loud uproars, crying and banging on the court building by the large crowd of people which congregated on the court compound. They are scheduled to return to the Santa Cruz RM Court on May 27.
