The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A 24-year-old correctional officer is expected to be formally charged in a Magistrate’s Court this week in connection with a drug seizure from his Sunset Park residence on Friday.

That expected arraignment would be one of several involving correctional officers taken before the courts on criminal charges in recent months.

According to police reports, around 1pm on July 14, officers assigned to the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) executed a search warrant at the correctional officer’s home at Caravel Road in Sunset Park.

Upon doing so, officers allegedly found just over two ounces of marijuana. The officer was consequently taken into custody and is expected to appear in court early this week to face formal charges.

In late March, a 30-year-old prison officer was sentenced to one year behind bars after admitting to having a quarter pound of marijuana with the intention of selling it.

In May, police said they were searching for a 26-year-old corrections officer after an undisclosed quantity of drugs was found at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) earlier that month.

In late June, a 45-year-old correctional officer was sentenced to a year in prison and made to pay a $1,000 fine after Magistrate Jeanine Weech-Gomez scolded him for his “stupid” decision to try and deliver marijuana to an inmate at the BDCS.

Earlier this month, another correctional officer was remanded to prison after being arraigned in Magistrate’s Court on drug-related charges.

Last week, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said he is “concerned” about the number of law enforcement officers who have recently been taken before the courts on criminal charges. He pledged to put a “greater focus” on “sifting out as many of the bad apples as possible” from the sector.

“When you take an oath to be a law enforcement officer, that’s a serious one,” the former deputy commissioner of police said last week.

“It means that you are here to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, it doesn’t mean that you are here to break it.

“It doesn’t mean that you are above the law and sometimes I think people confuse that.

“And so we’re here now to set the record straight that there will be no lowering of the bar or standards as it relates to law enforcement officers,” Mr Dames said.