Prisons officer granted bail for allegedly smuggling marijuana

A prison officer, who was arrested with a large quantity of marijuana at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca on Saturday, has been granted $200,000 bail.

Vishram Maharaj, 51, of Felicity, Chaguanas, was granted bail by Magistrate Avion Gill in Arima Magistrate's Court this morning.

Maharaj was arrested by police at about 7.30 pm on Saturday after the superintendent of the prison allegedly found three packets of marijuana in his lunch bag when he reported for duty.

Police searched his car and allegedly found five packets of marijuana and $4,000 cash.

Maharaj was charged with two counts of possession of marijuana and pleaded not-guilty.

At yesterday's hearing, attorney Delicia Helwig-Robertson, who held for Maharaj's lawyer Alexia Romero, objected to police prosecutors tendering the cash and the drugs into evidence, since, according to her the prisons officer was charged with simple possession and not drug trafficking.

The objection was overruled. Gill, however, agreed to grant Maharaj $40,000 cash bail to be held by the court instead of a property deed.

He was ordered to return to court on November 23. Cpl Ramcharan, of the Arouca Criminal Investigations Department, charged Maharaj with the offences.