Prescod cannabis trial: Coast Guard captain describes discovery on yacht

A Coast Guard captain told the High Court that a safety check aboard a yacht led to the discovery of a black duffel bag containing taped packages concealed beneath the deckboards.

Captain Alexander Kellman took the witness stand as the cannabis trafficking and importation trial of Walter Prescod continued in the No. 4 Supreme Court.

Prescod, of Emerald Park East, St Philip, has denied possessing 121.4 kilogrammes of cannabis within Barbados’s territorial waters, importing it and having a traffickable quantity of the illicit substance on July 23, 2018.

Captain Kellman, who was then Coast Guard operations officer, told the court that he received a call from the operations centre directing him to take a small boat team to conduct a routine boarding of a vessel called Ecstasy. On arrival, he saw a crew member and another man working on the boat. The crew member was later identified as Prescod.

Captain Kellman said the Ecstasy’s captain later identified himself and accompanied him on the initial safety check of the 63-metre vessel. After an initial sweep, one of Kellman’s crew members searched Prescod’s personal belongings, while another went into the engine room.

He told the court: “I observed there was a space under the deckboards and that was partially blocked by a white Igloo cooler. I moved that cooler and observed what appeared to be a black duffel bag lodged between some type of tank and the inner hull of the vessel. I asked one of my colleagues and instructed him to investigate what the bag was. 

“He lay on the floor, crawled into the space and opened the zipper of that bag about six inches, revealing what appeared to be taped cuboidal packages. Suspecting that to be contraband, I halted the activity of the searching of Mr Prescod’s belongings and instructed Mr Prescod to return to the main deck of the vessel. I then summoned the master of the vessel to be brought to that area.”

After he told the captain about the discovery, the man said he had no knowledge of the bag. Captain Kellman pointed out the bag to the captain, who again denied any knowledge of it.

He continued: “On seeing that, the master then told us as we were on the port side, or left side of the vessel, that on the starboard side or right side, there was a similar space and we should search there as well. On doing so, we discovered three polythene bags similar to the one found on the port side, as well as four loose taped packages in that general area. 

“At that time, I again posed the question to the master as to if he knew what was in those bags. He told me ‘no’ and I told him I would halt the search temporarily at that time and summon members of the then Royal Barbados Police Force as well as members of then Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Division, particularly the Enforcement branch, who all have responsibility for searching vessels in the Bridgetown Port.”

When these personnel arrived, they conducted further searches, but found no other items.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Sade Harris, Kellman said the searches had been conducted in the yacht captain’s presence and that no contraband had been found among Prescod’s belongings.

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC and acting Senior State Counsel Paul Prescod are representing the State in the trial, which continues on Tuesday before Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell and a nine-member jury.

(JB)