Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Three for­eign na­tion­als, held for co­caine traf­fick­ing, were each slapped with the max­i­mum $25,000 fine when they ap­peared in court yes­ter­day. Mag­is­trate Ali­cia Charkar, pre­sid­ing in the San Fer­nan­do court or­dered US cit­i­zens Christo­pher Smith, 34, and Je­re­my Smith, 29, and Mex­i­can Ansleno Es­per­aza, 43, to pay $25,000 each forth­with.

The men, who were rep­re­sent­ed by Se­nior Coun­sel Gilbert Pe­ter­son and at­tor­ney Ja­son Jack­son, were charged with hav­ing 13 grammes of co­caine in their pos­ses­sion for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing at Bay Road, Mara­bel­la, on Sat­ur­day.

The charge was laid by PC Nar­ine Bis­nath. They plead­ed guilty. Pe­ter­son, who said the men were em­ployed by US-based firm, PI­CA, to do spe­cialised work for a state en­ter­prise, asked Chankar to im­pose a fine on the men since they were ex­pect­ed to leave Trinidad to­day to re­turn to the US. (RR)