Four Ja­maican na­tion­als and a fam­i­ly of three are among eight peo­ple ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a Ch­agua­nas mag­is­trate, af­ter they were held in a po­lice ex­er­cise yes­ter­day. The raids be­gan around 3 am, hours be­fore new Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er paid a vis­it to his con­stituen­cy to de­liv­er a fea­ture ad­dress at Fe­lic­i­ty Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School.

Ac­cord­ing the re­ports, a par­ty of of­fi­cers led by Supt John­ny Abra­ham, In­spec­tor Wayne Lawrence, Sgt Ran­som Cpl Ali, and Cpl Nel­son, be­gan the ex­er­cise on Williams Street, Long­denville. With the use of the Ca­roni K9 Unit, the of­fi­cers searched a house and dis­cov­ered five kilo­grammes of mar­i­jua­na hid­den in a cup­board. A .40 cal­i­bre mag­a­zine from a Glock au­to­mat­ic gun and three rounds of am­mu­ni­tion were al­so seized.

The oc­cu­pants of the house, a 41-year-old woman, her 16-year-old son and her 36-year-old son-in-law were ar­rest­ed for the of­fence. Min­utes lat­er, the squad went to Jack­son Street, Cunu­pia, where they held four Ja­maicans and a Guyanese woman. Po­lice said the for­eign­ers were all liv­ing in an apart­ment build­ing and had been work­ing in T&T for sev­er­al months. Al­so, a 53-year-old man, of Tom Street, Long­denville, is to ap­pear in court for fail­ure to pay child main­te­nance.