Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Four men al­leged­ly held with $10m worth of co­caine in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents over the week­end were placed on a to­tal of $.85 mil­lion bail when they ap­peared be­fore a Siparia Mag­is­trate yes­ter­day. The to­tal weight of the drugs was put at 24.56 ki­los. Yes­ter­day Ron­nie Men­doza, 36, of Buenos Aires, Akeil Jerome, Damien Mc Coon and An­dre Au­gus­tine, all ap­peared be­fore Siparia First Court mag­is­trate Joanne Con­nor, charged with pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing. Men­doza, who was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Ramesh Deena, was joint­ly charged with Jerome for hav­ing 22.32 ki­los of co­caine in their pos­ses­sion at Erin.

They plead­ed not guilty to the charge.

Jerome was joint­ly charged with Mc Coon, who was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Roop­nar­ine Ram­bachan and Au­gus­tine, rep­re­sent­ed by Kenya Mur­ray, for hav­ing 2.14 ki­los of co­caine in their pos­ses­sion in La Brea. They al­so plead­ed not guilty. Po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Drid­genath Sookraj did not ob­ject to bail for the men. Jerome was placed on $400,000 bail while Men­doza, Mc Coon and Au­gus­tine, were each placed on $150,000 bail to be ap­proved by the clerk of the peace. The charges were laid by Cpl Mac Don­ald.

Jerome will reap­pear in the Point Fortin Mag­is­trates' Court on Au­gust 3. He will al­so reap­pear on Au­gust 6 when Men­doza, Mc Coon and Au­gus­tine are ex­pect­ed to reap­pear in the Siparia Mag­is­trates' Court. A cro­cus bag filled with the drugs was ten­dered in court yes­ter­day be­fore be­ing sent to the Foren­sic Sci­ences Cen­tre at St James for test­ing. In an un­re­lat­ed court mat­ter, Trevone Tou­s­saint, Ky­on Carmichael and Es­ter Bel­con al­so ap­peared be­fore Siparia Mag­is­trate, Joanne Con­nor, charged with pos­ses­sion of a pis­tol and sev­en rounds of am­mu­ni­tion. Tou­s­saint and Bel­con were grant­ed $150,000 each while Carmichael was placed on $200,000 bail.