Radio disc jockey Marinus Ayres aka Starchild was granted $250,000 bail when he appeared before Arima senior magistrate Debra Quintyne yesterday on drug trafficking charges.
By Trevor BurnettHis defence attorney Fulton Wilson told the magistrate Ayres, of San Juan, had 18 children.
Ayres, 38, was granted bail in the sum of $250,000 with two sureties.
He was arrested last Saturday at Piarco International Airport by officers attached to the Organised Crime and Narcotics Bureau (OCNB) allegedly with 1,457 grammes of cocaine in his suitcase.
The cocaine was concealed in packages of curry, channa, dhal, baking powder and icing glass patched in two pairs of jeans and two sweaters.
At the time of his arrest, Ayres was attempting to board flight BW-527 bound for JFK Airport in New York.
Ayres was charged by OCNB with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and the Customs and Excise Office charge of attempting to export prohibited goods.
In Wilson's bail application, he claimed that Ayres was gainfully employed at Radio 104.7 FM, had no previous convictions and the drug offences were bailable.
Magistrate Quintyne ruled that Ayres's conditional bail required that he report to the San Juan Police Station on Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.
She then ordered Ayres to reappear before the Arima Magistrates' courts on February 23.
Corporal Mark Maharaj held for the prosecution.
