$1m bail for Carenage fisherman on drug charge

A CARENAGE fisherman has been granted $1 million in bail to cover charges of trafficking 82.50 kilogrammes of marijuana and providing support to a gang for the trafficking of the drugs.

Peter Coltis appeared before Port of Spain magistrate Adia Mohammed this afternoon on the two charges.

On the drug-trafficking charge he is jointly charged with businessman Jerome Ollivierre, who also faced a similar gang-related charge.

Coltis was granted bail by Mohammed although police prosecutor Insp Wayne Mohammed objected on the ground that he was deemed a flight risk and had been arrested while on a boat at sea, without a passport.

When the magistrate asked what Coltis’s occupation was, Mohammed admitted he was a fisherman. This evoked laughter in the public gallery, but Mohammed still asked the magistrate to consider it in granting bail.

He also referred to alleged text messages recovered by warrant from Coltis’s phone to support his objection.

In granting bail, the magistrate also imposed the condition for him to report to the Carenage police station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He is to surrender his passport and if he does not have one, he has to provide documentation from the immigration department saying so.

Ollivierre, however, will return to court tomorrow for bail after his attorney, John Heath, questioned whether the charges against him duplicated charges on which he has already appeared in court and granted $1 million bail.

Ollivierre is facing similar charges in the Chaguanas magistrates’ court and the Port of Spain court, and according to Heath, they all appear to arise out of the same alleged incident.

Since the police could provide no answers to the magistrates’ questions on whether the charges were the same, Mohammed adjourned the matter so the prosecution can provide clarity on the charges and for bail to be considered.