Twelve per­sons were ar­rest­ed and charged for the of­fence of gath­er­ing in a pub­lic space in two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents at bars.

The ar­rests were made dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in Mara­bel­la yes­ter­day be­tween 2 pm and 6 pm. Gilbert Brew­ster, 84, Nor­bert Gar­cia, 77, Mario Sa­landy, 49, Mani­ram Dook­ie, 56, Roger Sama­roo, 29, Har­ri­da Bachan, 28, Lalchan Manuel, 58, Calvin Tam­bie, 50, Ku­mar Ka­mal\, 57, Kei­th Joseph, 57, Tamee­ka Sim­mons, 34 and Emi­ly Feng, 33, were ar­rest­ed in two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents at bars lo­cat­ed on Tarou­ba Road and Union Road in Mara­bel­la.

Emilt Feng the own­er of one of the bars was al­so charged with aid­ing and abet­ting. Feng was re­leased on a $15,000 bond, while the oth­er 11 sus­pects were all grant­ed bail for $10,000 and will all ap­pear at the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates’ Court on No­vem­ber 10th.

Snr Supt Yusuff Gaf­far, of the South­ern Di­vi­sion, not­ed that ex­er­cis­es of this na­ture will con­tin­ue through­out the di­vi­sion and urged cit­i­zens to obey the law re­gard­ing gath­er­ing in pub­lic spaces in or­der to re­duce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The ex­er­cise was su­per­vised by In­sp (Ag) San­tana, co­or­di­nat­ed by Sgt Ifil and Cpl Burke, and in­clud­ed of­fi­cers from the Mara­bel­la Po­lice Sta­tion, Mara­bel­la CID, South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force and the K-9 Unit