Dutch national Louisa Marja Jeukens, who appeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court yesterday to answer charges of trafficking 4.6 kilos of heroin, has been denied bail pending tracing through Interpol.
Magistrate Andrew Stroude, sitting in the 4A court, read the charges, which were laid indictably, as Jeukens was not called upon to plead.Jeukens, who spoke English, did not have any representation, as her request for an attorney through the embassy of the Netherlands was still being processed.
Stroude told Jeukens that bail would be withheld pending a tracing of her background, which would require the help of Interpol. He adjourned the matter to December 23.
Jeukens, 37, not 24 as previously reported, of the Netherlands, was arrested by customs officers on Wednesday night as she disembarked from the Sea Prowler, Pier I?s ferry to and from Venezuela.
She was first charged by customs officers with:
importing a prohibited substance (heroin);
making a false declaration;
importing prohibited goods (heroin) in a manner calculated to deceive the officers of customs.
She was also charged by Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit officers with the possession of a dangerous drug, heroin, for the purpose of trafficking.
The evidence taken into the courtroom consisted of four rectangular packages which were filled with heroin.
As they were being scrutinised and admitted into evidence the noxious odour of the narcotic filled the air, so much so, that the doors to the courtroom had to be left temporarily open.
One OCNU officer told the Guardian that the narcotic seized had a street value of close to $5 million and not $3 million as previously estimated.
Jeukens did not appear before a magistrate on Wednesday as she was taken for a medical examination after telling the police that she was pregnant.
The police were able to confirm yesterday that she was six weeks? pregnant.
The OCNU is continuing investigations as to the final destination to which the narcotics were headed.
