68 year-old Oscar Mena, his 35 year-old son, Alex Obrien, and 25 year-old Ernel Brooks, were arraigned before Senior Magistrate Frazer for theft and handling stolen goods.

In a blockbuster allegation, Obrien told Senior Magistrate Frazer that he bought the sugar from one of the stevedores, who work on the barges, and that he didn't know it was stolen. However, he did not identify this person who he bought it from.

Because the offenses are serious, no plea was taken, but Obrien begged the court to grant him bail. He said that he has 3 children in high school, and he must be able to get them several hundred dollars in school fees before the next school year starts. Due to the strength of the prosecution's objections, Senior Magistrate Frazer was forced to remand them to prison. However, she did take Obrien's plea into consideration, and she granted them an early adjournment of July 20, in which the prosecution must provide strong evidence against them.

As we reported, police conducted a search a residence located at #9783 Riverside Street Extension in the Lake Independence area, and At the residence, Police found 1 sack containing approx 65 lbs of suspected raw sugar packed in a used Belize Mills 'mill feed' bag, along with 150 similarly labeled bags all empty but containing sugar residue. Also found was a 330 lb. capacity scale believed to be used for weighing the sugar.