$40M ‘COKE’ IN COURT

File photo.
File photo.

Police, many with machine-guns, swarmed the Siparia Magistrates Court as pure cocaine worth $40 million was brought, along with two fishermen, before a magistrate.

The Siparia community would have heard blaring sirens at mid-morning when a convoy of police vehicles sped towards the courthouse. In a marked police jeep, 28.86 kilos of cocaine believed to have originated from Colombia and destined for markets in the United States and Europe, lay in cardboard boxes.

Officers of the Transnational Organised Crime Unit (TOCU) and the Southern Division Task Force (SDTF) guarded the illegal drugs. Shortly after, two men were brought in another vehicle and were escorted into the courtroom.

PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.

They were arrested on Saturday at 7.30 pm at a house in Red Brick Road, South Oropouche, a community overlooking the vast Gulf of Paria. Fishermen Junior Boyce, 34, of Red Brick Road and Emanuel Gordon, 21, of Fyzabad, were brought in handcuffs to the courthouse amid pouring rain.

As they sat in the jeep, police in other jeeps were parked nearby guns to the ready. When the rains abated, both men were taken out of the jeep, surrounded by policemen and hustled into the courthouse where they stood before Senior Magistrate Margaret Alert.

The officers then took out a cardboard box which contained individual one-kilo packets of cocaine. The drugs were taken into the courtroom to be viewed and noted as exhibits. An air-compressor was also produced to the court as another exhibit.

After Magistrate Alert dealt with several minor matters, she called the case of the two fishermen at 1.30 pm. Boyce and Gordon were brought before her. She read the charge that on Saturday, both had in their possession at Red Brick Road, 28.86 kilos of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.

Police sources at the court said this was the largest haul of cocaine ever brought into the Siparia Court and perhaps even in all court jurisdictions in South Trinidad.

Attorney Sade Lee Duprey who represented the men, told Magistrate Alert that her clients are fishermen and both have fixed places of abode. She asked that bail be granted to both. The court prosecutor argued against bail citing the quantum of the drugs seized.

Magistrate Alert remanded both men into custody and adjourned the case to November 20. She also ordered that the drugs and the compressor be sent to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for analysis.

Comments

"$40M ‘COKE’ IN COURT"

More in this section