Two fishermen from south Trinidad arrested in connection with a $20 million cocaine seizure in the Gulf of Paria last week, have each been granted $500,000 bail.
Sharma Kissoon, 62, of Embacadere, San Fernando, and Nigel Ramcharan, of Lothians Road, Princes Town, were granted the bail by acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle in the Port-of-Spain Magistrate’s Court after appearing before her charged with trafficking 40.7 kilos of cocaine.
Venezuelan national Roberto Gamboa, who was also arrested was denied bail.
In addition to the cocaine trafficking charge, the men were also charged under the Customs Act with attempting to import a controlled substance into T&T.
In their application for bail, Kissoon and Ramcharan’s attorneys Devvon Williams and Criston J Williams argued that there clients should be granted bail as their case was likely to be delayed as an apparatus for testing drug samples at the Forensic Science Centre in St James was not working.
Busby Earle-Caddle agreed but required that they obtain two sureties for their bail to be approved. She adjourned the case to June 23.
Kissoon, Ramcharan and Gamboa were arrested aboard a pirogue in the Gulf of Paria by members of the T&T Coast Guard last Thursday. They were arrested and handed over to the Organised Crime and Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB) after the illegal drugs were allegedly found on their boat.
Kissoon and Gamboa are also being represented by Kelston Pope. The Customs and Excise Division was represented by Harricharan Cassie.
