PORT OF SPAIN – Police say five undocumented Venezuelan nationals were fined a total of $25,000 after they were found guilty of entering Trinidad and Tobago illegally.
The police said that the five were from a group of 11 Venezuelans, including seven women, who were detained during anticrime exercises earlier this week.
They said the five – Daniel Alejandro Jimenez Cedeno, Jennifer Simone Leon Mendoza; Krismar Gabriela Hernandez Hernandez, Carlos Miguel Fuentes Villarba and Jose Leonardo Padovany Guerra – appeared before Magistrate Armani Deonarinesingh and pleaded guilty to the offence of entering the country illegally.
They were each fined $5,000 each and given 14 days to pay the fines or in default serve 30 days in prison.
The police, which did not say when the Venezuelans entered the country illegally, said the remaining six have been remanded into custody and will appear in court at a later date.
Meanwhile, six Venezuelan nationals, who were being held at the Immigration Detention Centre, were repatriated to their homeland, the police said, adding that they included five males and one female.
“This exercise is part of an ongoing initiative by the TTPS Immigration Investigations Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department/Criminal Records Office (CID/CRO). It was coordinated by Chief Immigration Officer,” the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service said in a statement.
