MIAMI, Florida -- Good news and bad news greeted the seven members of Bermuda's Under-23 soccer team when they appeared in a Miami courtroom for a bail hearing on Saturday.

The good news was the more serious charge of drug trafficking against Herbert Dillas, 20, Meshach Wade, 20, Donnie Charles, 20, Kevin Jennings, 21, Shawn Riley, 20, Keishon Smith, 20, and Tokia Russell, 17, was reduced to one of importation.

Trafficking carries a minimum three-year jail sentence.

But the bad news was the youngsters could remain in custody even though Bermuda Football Association (BFA) officials were set to arrive in Miami today with bail money.

After bail is posted, the players will have win permission from the immigration department to leave the country.

American lawyer Mr. H.T. Smith, retained by the BFA, succeeded in getting bail reduced to $2,000 per player from its original $10,000 over the objections of the state prosecutor.

Mr. Smith is president of the National Bar Association which represents black lawyers and judges in the United States. He was in Bermuda last weekend.

Judge Harvey Baxter, presiding, agreed to Mr. Smith's request, pointing out there was no way the players would be released from custody anyway, because of criminal case detention and the players' immigration detention status.

That, however, may soon change for Russell.

Mr. Smith had a "security detention'' order cancelled. Russell is to appear before Judge Lederman at the Juvenile Justice Centre this afternoon.

As bail does not apply to juveniles, Smith is hoping Russell can be turned over to the custody of his parents or guardians -- whom Mr. Smith hopes will arrive in Florida today.

The players were charged with importation and possession of marijuana ranging in weight from three-quarter pounds to two pounds. Judge Baxter was not able to determine the exact street value of the drug, vaguely estimated in the court by Mr. Smith at a few hundred dollars.

The players were not physically in the court, though Judge Baxter could hear and see them, and they him, through television cameras and monitors. The players were actually at a building across the street, at the Dade County Detention Centre.

First to appear before the Judge was Russell. He was among a few dozen juveniles as young as ten years old there for offences including aggravated battery and assault.

Russell was dressed in and orange prison uniform and looked calm and composed.

"He is erroneously charged with trafficking marijuana but I think it should be importation,'' Mr. Smith told the judge.

"Immigration will hold him no matter what, but if he has no priors and this is not a trafficking offence then why is he in secure detention?'' Mr. Smith asked.

Mr. Smith accepted that his youngest client would have to be detained until the immigration hold is lifted.

"Have a nice day,'' the judge told the lawyer.

"I'm not though yet,'' said Mr. Smith, obviously referring to his six other clients who appeared three hours later.

In the meantime, Mr. Smith spoke about the charges facing the Bermudians.

"They all have holds for immigration so that what we have to do is arrange for them to get a bond on the criminal charges, and after they are able to post a bond (bail) they are turned over to immigration where we will then seek a release that's sufficient to guarantee that they will take care of the immigration aspect,'' said Mr. Smith.

"Normally when you get arrested all you have to do is post a bond but because they are from another country and because immigration has placed a hold on them, we have to deal with both the criminal case detention status as well as the immigration detention status. "So my purpose here on Tokia's case is to ensure that he will go to court as soon as possible and I'm happy to learn that he will go on Monday.

"The faster we go to court to deal with his detention status as a juvenile the faster I can get him to immigration to deal with that status.'' Mr. Smith believes the players' good backgrounds and clean records will work in their favour.

"Right now our concern is not so much the case but that we reunite these young people with their families,'' said Mr. Smith.

"We will have more than enough time to properly defend these charges -- and we will.'' The arraignment date for the six older players is December 30, customarily set for 21 days after an arrest. Mr. Smith said he would try to have the date brought forward.

"We might be able to post bonds for the adults and then arrange to get them before immigration,'' Mr. Smith explained.

"For juveniles you have to release them to someone's custody, you don't post bond for juveniles,'' he stressed.

"But the parents aren't here so we can't do that. We might have to arrange for the parents of Tokia to come up and take physical custody of their child and then go to immigration. That is our game plan.

"The charge and the fact that they are not residents of this community or this country are the two negative things,'' Mr. Smith admits.

On the plus side, he said, were their ages, clean records, good families and the support of the BFA. Also, he added, the drug was not cocaine and not, in Miami, a lot of marijuana.

He said it took 100 pounds of marijuana before it became trafficking.

"Additionally, the other thing that helps them is their travel itinerary clearly indicates that they were in transit, with no intent to import anything into the United States.

That and the small amount is why the Federal government decided to let the case be handled at state level, he said.

"Already their circumstances are weighing in their favour. It is much easier to deal with a state case.'' If released by the court to the custody of the Immigration Department then the six adults would likely be detained at the Chrome Detention Centre in the south of the county which is where those with immigration violations are detained.

It is not known when the six will reappear in court of if they will be home for Christmas.

"It depends on who's the judge,'' Mr. Smith stressed.

"Some judges are good about that and some are very strict about you staying here until the case is concluded. If the judge requires them to stay here then I'm going to speed up the case, that's all. It's not a complicated case at all.''