Criminals migrating to South, says top officer

With the crime hot spots in the Northern Divisions now under intense police scrutiny, criminals are migrating to the Southern Division. So said acting Snr Supt Cecil Santana, who has vowed to keep criminals out of the division, at a news briefing yesterday at the Administration Building, San Fernando.

He said six guns and an assortment of ammunition were found during several raids, They were displayed for the media yesterday. One of the guns, a high-powered .9mm assault rifle, was seized around 4.15 am, yesterday when police from the Southern Division Task Force, CID, Princes Town, Barrackpore and Moruga stations, raided a house at Cachipe Village, Moruga. 

Santana said police also arrested four of the five occupants of the house, including one from Diego Martin. He said one man, who fired at the police as he escaped into the bush, remains at large. He said the five other guns—three .9mm rifles, a .38 revolver and a shotgun—were seized during the past week in roadblocks and other exercises in the Southern Division. 

Two were used in a robbery at Vistabella on Saturday. He said two men  from East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, held in connection with the robbery, were taken before the court and each sentenced to five years in jail. “This shows clearly we have a migration of criminal elements infiltrating the Southern Division,” he said. He also pointed out that one of the people arrested in connection with the killing of police Sgt Hayden Manwaring was also from Port-of-Spain.

He assured the police had put defence strategies in place to ensure the division was safe, with as little crime as possible. “To ensure that citizens will be able to work and go about their business freely, without fear, we intend to keep up the fight and ensure the criminal element is put behind bars,” Santana said. In a separate incident, police from the Brasso station also seized a homemade shotgun and 12 rounds of 12-gauge ammunition in Caparo on Wednesday.

PCs Bunsee, Balkissoon, Gardener, Sammy and WPC Bruce searched a forested area at New Gunness Trace and discovered the cache in three garbage bags.