KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

A rou­tine Mon­day morn­ing in the San Fer­nan­do court took on a weight­i­er tone as eight men faced charges stem­ming from a tar­get­ed firearm sup­pres­sion ex­er­cise ear­li­er this month. Some walked out on bail un­der strict con­di­tions, while oth­ers were or­dered to re­main be­hind bars as the crack­down on il­le­gal guns in the South­ern Di­vi­sion in­ten­si­fies.

Court Mas­ter Deli­cia Bethele­my presided over the hear­ings, care­ful­ly weigh­ing the grav­i­ty of the al­le­ga­tions and the le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the ac­cused. Act­ing Cor­po­ral Hug­gins charged Aikim An­drews, Kadeem Trot­man, Tarik James (al­so known as Tarik Lor­rielle), Kalichi Cop­pin, and Math­ew Fras­er (al­so known as Mau­rice Forde) with pos­ses­sion of a shot­gun and three shot­gun shells on Au­gust 7.

An­drews, rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Ka­reem Mar­celle, was grant­ed bail in the sum of $250,000. He must re­port reg­u­lar­ly to the Cen­tral Po­lice Sta­tion and sur­ren­der his pass­port as part of his bail con­di­tions.

How­ev­er, the court showed no such le­nien­cy to the oth­ers. Trot­man and Fras­er, whose at­tor­neys God­son Phillip and Clark Wills were ab­sent from pro­ceed­ings, were de­nied bail. Cop­pin was re­mand­ed un­til Au­gust 20 pend­ing trac­ing, while James, rep­re­sent­ed by Ian Brooks, was al­so re­fused bail.

In a sep­a­rate case, PC Lal­loo laid charges against Ju­dah Lash­ley and Akeem Scott for pos­ses­sion of a pis­tol fit­ted with an ex­tend­ed mag­a­zine and ten rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion. Rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Jared Ram­saran and Kedar, re­spec­tive­ly, both men were de­nied bail.

An­oth­er pair, Sha­keem Alexan­der and De­sean Gay, were charged by PC Ram­sa­roop with pos­ses­sion of an ex­tend­ed mag­a­zine and 15 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion. Rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney En­rique Singh, both were grant­ed $250,000 bail with con­di­tions that in­clude night­ly cur­fews and reg­u­lar po­lice re­port­ing.

The charges stem from a San Fer­nan­do Po­lice op­er­a­tions team ex­er­cise on Au­gust 7, led by Sgt Seecha­ran. Of­fi­cers seized a cache of weapons and am­mu­ni­tion, in­clud­ing a shot­gun and three shot­gun shells, a pis­tol with an ex­tend­ed mag­a­zine and ten rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion and an ex­tend­ed mag­a­zine con­tain­ing fif­teen rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion.

Sgt Rea­gan Ra­manan, At­tor­ney-at-Law, pros­e­cut­ed the cas­es.