By Amadou Jadama
Lamin Sillah, Omar Faal and Sutay Marong yesterday were found guilty by Senior Magistrate Anna Mendy of the Brikama court of receiving monies from various people for the purpose of facilitating their travel to the Canary Islands in Spain.
She adjourned the case to Monday for sentencing and ordered that the three convicts be remanded at the State Central Prisons at Mile 2.
The three convicts were charged with a single count of acting as intermediary for the purpose of trafficking. They all pleaded guilty to the charge when the case was called.
According to Supt Bakary Njie, the prosecuting officer for the Gambia Immigration Department, the victims are from Sierra Leone, Senegal and The Gambia.
He told the court that the incident happened on 9 June 2021 between 9pm and 11pm at Gunjur and diverse places within the West Coast Region.
He said they had a tip-off that a boat was about to set sail for the Canary Islands in Spain and acting in concert with personnel of sister forces, sprung into action.
“The first suspect to be arrested was Lamin Sillah, who led the officers to the arrest of Omar Faal and Sutay Marong. They later took the officers to the compound where these [would be] migrants were converging. Upon the arrival of the officers, some of the intending travellers started to run away and 37 were arrested and taken to the Tanji Immigration Unit where their statements were taken.”
The three were later charged and arraigned. It was also noted that this transaction was dragging on since last year.
