Eleven in­di­vid­u­als have been charged fol­low­ing an in­ter­cep­tion by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard (TTCG) off the Erin coast on Fri­day.

The group was de­tained dur­ing a mar­itime op­er­a­tion and lat­er hand­ed over to the po­lice. In­ves­ti­ga­tions were con­duct­ed, and charges were laid for im­mi­gra­tion-re­lat­ed of­fences.

Po­lice said the in­di­vid­u­als are aged be­tween 19 and 44. The group in­cludes eight males and three fe­males. Au­thor­i­ties al­lege the in­di­vid­u­als are Venezue­lan na­tion­als.

Nine of the ac­cused have been charged with il­le­gal en­try. Two oth­ers have been charged with il­le­gal en­try and aid­ing and abet­ting.

All 11 in­di­vid­u­als are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore the court in re­la­tion to the charges.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice stat­ed it con­tin­ues to work with the TTCG and oth­er agen­cies on bor­der se­cu­ri­ty op­er­a­tions and en­force­ment.

Po­lice al­so re­mind­ed the pub­lic that as­sist­ing or fa­cil­i­tat­ing il­le­gal en­try in­to T&T is an of­fence un­der the law. They said per­sons found en­gag­ing in such ac­tiv­i­ties will be charged.

The in­ter­cep­tion forms part of on­go­ing op­er­a­tions tar­get­ing il­le­gal en­try in­to the coun­try.