And a fisherman was also in court today on a single charge of handling stolen goods after he was accused of being in possession of another fisherman's conch.
30-year-old Neon Albert Arnold pleases not guilty to the charge and since there was no objection to bail, the magistrate offered it in the sum of $800 plus one surety of the same amount, which he was able to meet.
The allegations against him stem from an incident that occurred on Sunday, February 27th, when 29-year-old boat captain, Jose Luis Equizabal reported that he was about 3 mils from English Channel when he was a dark skiff with four armed men came towards him. The men held him at gunpoint and robbed him of 20 pounds of lobster tails, valued at $800. They also stole an undisclosed amount of conchs valued at $5,500, 36 gallons of fuel, and one Yamaha engine. The total value of the items stolen was $15,900.
Police later spoke with Estevan Solis, the chairman of Northern Fisherman Cooperative, who said that sometime that same morning, lobster tails were brought to the cooperative by Arnold to be sold. When Solis inspected the tails, they had different marks on them, suggesting that they had belong to different owners. 37of the tails were recognized as Equizabal's.
Arnold is due back in court on September 6th.
