Derek Achong

A lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor was among 24 men ar­rest­ed in Aranguez on Fri­day night for breach of the 11 pm to 4 am cur­few and drunk dri­ving of­fences. The coun­cil­lor, 35, a res­i­dent of Trou Macaque, Laven­tille, was held by of­fi­cers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force led by Sgt Roger Alexan­der and Cpl Sunil Bharath along the Aranguez Main Road. The coun­cil­lor, a mem­ber of the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, was ar­rest­ed in the com­pa­ny of an off-du­ty fire­man, al­so of Trou Macaque. Po­lice said around 11.30 pm the of­fi­cers stopped a Toy­ota Corol­la ve­hi­cle dri­ven by the fire­man along the Main Road.

Po­lice said there was a strong scent of al­co­hol on the fire­man and lat­er a breathal­yser test showed that he was over the le­gal al­co­hol lim­it. Both men were ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the Mor­vant Po­lice Sta­tion where the coun­cil­lor was sub­se­quent­ly charged for breach of cur­few, and the dri­ver for breach of cur­few and drunk dri­ving. Eleven oth­er dri­vers who were sus­pect­ed of be­ing in­tox­i­cat­ed were al­so test­ed and charged with the of­fence which car­ries a max­i­mum fine of $8,000 or up to three years im­pris­on­ment. They are all ex­pect­ed to ap­pear in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court to an­swer the charges to­mor­row.