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Men in VG cocaine bust plead not guilty to drug charges
The men all entered not guilty pleas to the drug related charges when they appeared before Magistrate Ayanna O. Baptiste-DaBreo on Tuesday, December 10, 2019.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan men pleaded guilty to the charge of landing without leave in the Territory from an immigration officer.
Long trial
The trial, according to Prosecutor O’Neal Simpson, will have at least 16 witnesses for the Crown and is expected to last for two weeks in the Magistrate’s Court.
He explained that the witnesses would be a mixture of locals and persons from outside of the Territory as the $30.9 million worth of cocaine bust was a joint operation between the US Coast Guard and the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF).
The matter was then scheduled for report on February 13, 2020 following which it is expected to head to trial on March 4, 10 and 11, 2020.
Allegations in the matter
Prosecutors said the local police received information of the suspicious activity happening about 20 miles north of St Croix, US Virgin Islands (USVI) on October 27, 2019.
In response, the RVIPF and Her Majesty’s Customs were deployed to Virgin Gorda while the US Coast Guard chased the boat containing the four men suspected to be carrying a large quantity of drugs at sea.
Prosecutors said during the chase; packages were seen being thrown overboard from the vessel of the accused men at three locations.
The pursuit ended in Virgin Gorda where the RVIPF were lying in wait and captured the men who attempted to flee once they arrived on land.
After the arrest, the US Coast Guard and the RVIPF retrieved the packages that were seen being dumped in the water earlier.
They recovered 11 bales holding 276 blocks of cocaine at a weight of 309 kilograms.
The men were subsequently charged with the offences.
Browne and Simon were offered $500,000 bail, but their Venezuelan counterparts were placed on remand.
Leroy Jones is the defence attorney for Browne, Vargas and Ybarbia, while Patrick D. Thompson and Reynela Rawlins represent Simon.
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7 Responses to “Men in VG cocaine bust plead not guilty to drug charges”
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