Derek Achong

Two for­eign na­tion­als were yes­ter­day fined more than $30,000 af­ter be­ing found with fraud­u­lent pass­ports. The men, a Venezue­lan and a Span­ish na­tion­al, were said to be want­ed in their re­spec­tive coun­tries on nar­cotics, firearm and kid­nap­ping charges. Alex­is Gutierez, 54, of Venezuela, plead­ed guilty when he ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Mar­cia Mur­ray in the Port-of-Spain First Court and was fined a to­tal of $21,000 or 18 weeks' im­pris­on­ment with hard labour. Mur­ray or­dered that the fine be paid forth­with.

Gutierez was charged with be­ing in pos­ses­sion of a fraud­u­lent Venezue­lan pass­port, ut­ter­ing a fraud­u­lent pass­port, en­ter­ing the coun­try il­le­gal­ly and breach­ing a de­ten­tion or­der against him. When asked by Mur­ray about his rea­son for be­ing in the coun­try il­le­gal­ly, he said he came to Trinidad seek­ing a bet­ter life. He al­so said he was giv­en the fake pass­port by a friend who told him it was le­git­i­mate. Gutierez was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Criston J Williams. Mean­while, An­to­nio Ro­driguez Car­rdad, of Spain, was fined $10,000 af­ter plead­ing guilty to pos­sess­ing a fake Span­ish pass­port.

Gutierez and Car­rdad were ar­rest­ed by West­ern Di­vi­sion Po­lice last week dur­ing an ex­er­cise in the Co­corite area. In­ter­pol trac­ing of the men, which was re­ceived by po­lice this week, showed that both men had crim­i­nal charges in their coun­tries. The men were hand­ed over to Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials and are ex­pect­ed to be processed for de­por­ta­tion in the next few weeks.