SASCHA WIL­SON

Two Ce­dros fish­er­men are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear in court to­day joint­ly charged with 47 wildlife traf­fick­ing of­fences.

The men, ages 35 and 46, of Ica­cos Vil­lage, were ar­rest­ed along with four Venezue­lans on Sat­ur­day morn­ing af­ter the po­lice, act­ing on a tip-off, found 13 Ca­puchin mon­keys and 17 bullfinch­es at a house. It is be­lieved that the an­i­mals were brought by boat from Venezuela to be sold on the black mar­ket.

In­volved in the joint ex­er­cise were game war­dens Richard Sor­ril­lo, Steve Seep­er­sad, Bisham Mad­hu, Glen­ford Doyle and Vanes­sa Ghilcris-Lopez. Sgt Ram­saran was in charge of the ex­er­cise which was spear­head­ed by the Con­ser­va­tor of Forests and chief game war­den Den­ny Dipchans­ingh.

At around 12.30 am on Sat­ur­day, the of­fi­cers and game war­dens went to a house at Lover’s Lane and found the mon­keys in three wick­er bas­kets and the birds in a cage. The four Venezue­lans were hand­ed over to the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, while the Trinida­di­ans were joint­ly charged with 13 counts of pos­ses­sion of a pro­tect­ed an­i­mal, 17 counts of keep­ing birds in an un­der­sized cage and 17 counts of keep­ing caged birds with­out a per­mit.

The of­fence of be­ing in pos­ses­sion of a pro­tect­ed an­i­mal car­ries a $5,000 fine, while the penal­ty for the oth­er of­fences is a $2,000 fine.

Law en­force­ment of­fi­cers ap­pealed to the pub­lic to de­sist from par­tic­i­pat­ing in or en­cour­ag­ing the il­le­gal wildlife trade. The an­i­mals are ex­pect­ed to be shown to the mag­is­trate when the mat­ter is called to­day in the Point Fortin Mag­is­trates Court.