Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Four men, in­clud­ing a Venezue­lan na­tion­al, have been de­nied bail af­ter ap­pear­ing in court charged with traf­fick­ing over $200 mil­lion in co­caine. 

Jomel Jo­gie, 35, of San Fer­nan­do; Nicholas Dow­ell, 38, of St Joseph; Jor­dan Suther­land, 24, of Blan­chisseuse; and 27-year-old Venezue­lan Yor­wuin Guer­ra were re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody when they made their first court ap­pear­ance be­fore High Court Mas­ter In­di­ra Chinebas last Fri­day. 

Mas­ter Chinebas found that there were sub­stan­tial grounds for be­liev­ing that they would ab­scond if grant­ed bail. 

The four men were ar­rest­ed last Mon­day by Coast Guard per­son­nel, who in­ter­cept­ed the 28-foot pirogue near Patos Is­land. 

The ves­sel was re­port­ed­ly on course to Cha­cachacare Is­land but at­tempt­ed to turn around to re­turn to Venezuela. 

The ves­sel, which had an an­ten­na for Star­link satel­lite in­ter­net, was stopped af­ter the of­fi­cers shot at the three 200 HP out­board en­gines. 

The ves­sel was es­cort­ed to the Coast Guard's Staubles Bay head­quar­ters, where it was searched. 

Over 400 ki­los of co­caine was found hid­den in nine bar­rels. Po­lice of­fi­cers es­ti­mat­ed the street val­ue of the seized drugs to be $204,534,528. 

The men, who were rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Richard Is­sac, are sched­uled to reap­pear in court on De­cem­ber 15.

The State was rep­re­sent­ed by Ver­son Jeanville.