Seven Haitian men charged in connection with a $1.1 million cocaine seizure made their first appearance before a magistrate yesterday.
Alston Raymond, 58; Wilser Lafrance, 42; Bertrand Predestin, 54; Richard Fortiulien, 44; Jeanty Valerice, 28; Romane Petit-Frere; and Jean Benjamin, 43, denied charges of drug possession with intent to supply, drug importation and conspiracy to commit the offenses at their arraignment before Magistrate Andrew Forbes.
As the magistrate did not have the jurisdiction to consider bail, they were remanded into custody until their trial on April 21.
Officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit arrested the men off Abaco on March 2.
Chief Superintendent Samuel Butler said the arrest was the culmination of a 24-hour surveillance of a steel freighter as it travelled from the southern Bahamas to the north.
Butler said that someone on the boat started to jettison packages into the sea. Police seized 219 pounds, or 99.5 kilos of cocaine, with a wholesale street value of $1.1 million.

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