Arouca men plead not guilty to gang charges

FOUR Arouca men appeared before an Arima magistrate yesterday to answer charges of being in a gang after they were arrested by members of the Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit (OCIU) earlier this month.

The men, including 31-year-old Renaldo Gomez aka “Top Dog”, Avinash Suchit, 19, Kenson Williams, 32 and Kervon McIntyre, 26, appeared before senior magistrate Jo-Anne Connor in the Arima Magistrate’s First Court. All were charged under section 6 (1) (b) of the Anti-Gang Act 2018 for the offence of being in a gang, which was read by Connor. All four pleaded not guilty.

Attorney Seana Baboolal represented Gomez and Suchit and asked Connor to show leniency to Suchit as he was 19-years-old and had no matters pending before any court. Gomez has two pending matters before the Siparia and Arima magistrates courts for the possession of marijuana and using obscene language respectively.

Connor denied bail to the pair pending the submission of extracts from the previous offences, to ensure that these matters were not pending. They were remanded into custody for 28 days.

Baboolal also requested full disclosure from the complainant, specifically for the search warrant which allowed the tapping of cell phones.

According to Baboolal, Gomez told her that during an interview with investigators after his arrest, he was told that data from his cell phone was extracted.

In addition to the charge of being in a gang, Williams and McIntyre were also charged with the possession of marijuana. They pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge and were fined $1600 each to be paid within 14 days. They were also granted $85,000 bail.

The four are expected to reappear in court on December 11.

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"Arouca men plead not guilty to gang charges"

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