Drug charges dropped against six

TWO Venezuelan women and four Trinidadian men charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking were discharged on Tuesday by a Port of Spain magistrate.

The six – Venezuelans Eudimar Abreu and Wilmariel Bermudez, and Trinidadians Ikim Brewster, Nigel Scott, Nicholas Scott and Alimudeen Sakoor – were before magistrate Rehanna Hosein in the 4A Port of Spain District Court.

On Tuesday, Hosein dismissed the charges against them. Abreau was deported last year but the prosecution against her continued in her absence.

The duo and four Trinidadian men were arrested by the Port of Spain Division Task Force in October 2021, after police executed a search warrant for arms and ammunition at a house at Maraj Trace, Chaguanas.

While searching the kitchen, they allegedly found 678 grammes of cocaine in a bag hidden in a cupboard.

In her ruling, Hosein held that the prosecution was unable to prove who occupied the premises or was in possession of the drugs allegedly found in the house.

Prosecutors presented evidence from two police officers, who could not provide documentation to establish the sequence of events during the search of the house. The officers’ evidence also contradicted entries contained in the police’s station diary.

The six were represented by attorney Roshan Tota Maharaj, who also argued that the certificate of analysis from the Forensic Science Centre did not indicate the quantity of the cocaine allegedly found, or its concentration.