Two weeks after a Prison Officer at the Mazaruni jail was charged and sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to an attempt to smuggle marijuana into the high security prison facility, another Prison Officer at the same jail house has been busted trying to do the same and is now facing two years in jail.

Prison Officer Walter Benn was arrested on Wednesday at the front gate of the Mazaruni Prison as he attempted to smuggle more than 250 grams of marijuana into the jail house. The illegal drug was found concealed in an empty Ensure bottle.

The matter was reported and following Benn’s arrest, a search was carried out at his living quarters and where additional Ensure bottles packed with marijuana were discovered.

The Police report stated that a party of investigators then visited the man’s home where his wife, Tecina Angel Willis, who is a Fire Officer, reportedly admitted to transferring the narcotics and three cell phones to her neighbour, Melissa Allen, who then passed them to her reputed husband, Rhon Smith, for concealment.

The Police said the neighbour’s reputed husband, Rhon Smith, led investigators to a clump of bushes behind his home, where nine Ensure bottles containing more marijuana and three cell phones were recovered.

The total narcotics seized at the home amounted to 856 grams, leading to the arrest of the Prison Officer’s reputed wife and their neighbours.

The four were marched before the Bartica Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where the charge of Possession of Narcotics for the purpose of trafficking was read to them.

In facing the charge, Prison Officer Walter Benn immediately entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to two years and five months in prison.

The other three accused, Fire Officer Tecina Willis, her neighbour Melissa Allen and the neighbour’s reputed husband Rhon Smith, pleaded not guilty when the drug trafficking charge was read to them. They were all granted bail in the sum of $80,000 and will make their next Court appearance on the 12th March for the continuation of the case.

This is the second incident within two weeks that a Prison Officer at the Mazaruni jail has been busted during a drug smuggling attempt.

In mid-January, Joel Johnson was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. He was held with more than 800 grams of marijuana in soap and toothpaste boxes at the Prison.

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