Sascha Wil­son

Two-time Olympic cy­clist Njisane Phillip was yes­ter­day grant­ed $300,000 ap­proval bail with a cash al­ter­na­tive of $30,000 on firearm and mar­i­jua­na charges.

Phillip ap­peared vir­tu­al­ly be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate Armi­na De­onar­i­nesingh in the San Fer­nan­do Court on three charges, in­clud­ing pos­ses­sion of a firearm, pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion and pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na.

How­ev­er, the mag­is­trate or­dered that the 31-year-old re­tired na­tion­al cy­clist sur­ren­der his T&T and Unit­ed States pass­ports and re­port to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion every Wednes­day.

Phillip was ar­rest­ed around 5 pm on Sat­ur­day (March 25), af­ter po­lice pulled him over for al­leged­ly speed­ing along the Solomon Ho­choy High­way, near Gand­hi Vil­lage in Debe.

While in­ter­view­ing him, the of­fi­cer al­leged­ly got a strong scent of mar­i­jua­na com­ing from his ve­hi­cle.

The of­fi­cers searched the ve­hi­cle and al­leged­ly found 62 grammes of mar­i­jua­na and a firearm with a mag­a­zine con­tain­ing four rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion.

Phillip, of Siparia, was ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the South High­way Pa­trol Unit in Debe, where he was charged by PC Sankar.

He was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Cedric Nep­tune. The mat­ter was ad­journed to April 24.