Two men were de­nied bail when they ap­peared in court this week, charged joint­ly with pos­ses­sion of cannabis for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing.

Mi­tra Balchan, 42, of La Brea, and Cae­sar Ger­al­do Ro­driguez Calzadil­la, 33, of San Juan, were charged with the of­fence when they ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Am­brose Per­sads­ingh in the South Crim­i­nal Court on Mon­day, Oc­to­ber 6, 2025. They were de­nied bail and the mat­ter was ad­journed to April 10, 2026.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Coast Guard per­son­nel were on pa­trol in the Gulf of Paria off Point Fortin around 2.18 am on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 12, 2025, when they in­ter­cept­ed a ves­sel. Three men al­leged­ly jumped over­board. Two of the men were re­cov­ered. A to­tal of 268 pack­ages con­tain­ing cannabis weigh­ing 292.68 kilo­grammes were al­leged­ly found on the boat.

The men were charged fol­low­ing ad­vice from Act­ing Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Sab­ri­na Dougdeen-Jaglal.

—Shane Su­perville