South drivers get over 100 traffic tickets

One hundred tickets were issued for various traffic offences, a stolen van was recovered and a  man was arrested for marijuana possession during separate police exercises carried out in the southland over the Easter weekend.

The majority of tickets were issued by officers of the Mon Repos Highway Patrol led by Ag Insp Sampath, Cpl Dwarka, and including PCs Singh, Corbette, Cole, Ramjattan, Ramnarine and Roopchan between last Friday and yesterday. Seventy-three persons were ticketed for overcrowding, defective lights, no horn, breach of traffic lights and other offences.

The officers also recovered a white three tonne van, belonging to Arima Discount Mart, which was stolen on April 17, when the driver was hijacked by bandits in Gasparillo. The bandits made off with the van carrying over 20,000 worth of goods. Except for the goods, the van, which was discovered at St Johns Road, St Margarets, was intact. Yesterday a party of officers attached to Mon Repos Police, led by Cpl Nagessar, including PCs Gomez, Lall and Ladhar, issued 12 tickets for “extra” speeding to motorists travelling along the Solomon Hochoy Highway between 7 am and  11 am. And last Friday night during a three-hour road block, policemen of the San Fernando Traffic Branch led by Sgt Mohammed, ticketed 15 persons for various traffic offences.

Around 9.45 am, a 54-year-old unemployed of La Horquetta Road, Glenco, was arrested by police motorcyclist PC Sydney Gill who was  on patrol duty along Kings Wharf, San Fernando. Reports stated that the officer spotted the man smoking an unusually long cigarette and became suspicious. The officer examined the cigarette and observed that it contained marijuana. The suspect was arrested and is expected to appear before a San Fernando Magistrate today charged with possession of .8 grammes of marijuana.