Two Venezuelan women have been denied bail after appearing in court charged with cocaine trafficking.
Eudimar Abreu and Wilmariel Bermudez were remanded into custody when they appeared before Magistrate Rehanna Hosein yesterday morning.
During the hearing, the duo’s lawyer, Roshan Tota-Maharaj, claimed they both had applied for refugee status through the local affiliate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Magistrate Hosein promised to consider bail during their next hearing, in which she will be presented with official records on their alleged refugee status.
The women are scheduled to reappear in court on September 22.
The duo and four Trinidadian men were arrested by officers of the Port-of-Spain Division Task Force last Thursday, after they (the police) executed a search warrant for arms and ammunition at a house at Maraj Trace, Chaguanas. While searching the kitchen, the officers allegedly found 678 grammes of cocaine in a bag hidden in a cupboard. The women were charged with cocaine trafficking alongside Ikim Brewster, Nigel Scott, Nicholas Scott and Alimudeen Sakoor, who were also allegedly found in the house.
The four men were each granted $300,000 station bail by a Justice of the Peace shortly after they were charged. The men, who were also represented by Tota-Maharaj, were ordered to make their first court appearance in the case on October 7.