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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

MP: Criminals are migrating to Central

by

20140521

Crim­i­nals from Port-of-Spain and oth­er ur­ban ar­eas come to cer­tain ar­eas in Or­ange Field, Chase Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, where they re­set­tle for a pe­ri­od and con­tribute to gang ac­tiv­i­ty in the dis­trict, says Cou­va North MP Ra­mona Ram­di­al."All the gangs in the coun­try are in­ter­con­nect­ed. Their net­work­ing on the ground is very strong," she said.Ram­di­al was re­spond­ing to ques­tions from the T&T Guardian about yes­ter­day's shootout in an area of the Or­ange Field Road, called "The Wall".

Ram­di­al iden­ti­fied oth­er crime ar­eas in her con­stituen­cy like Wyabi, Wa­ter­loo and Brick­field."I am aware of gang ac­tiv­i­ty in Cou­va North," she said.She said she worked close­ly with Cen­tral Di­vi­sion head, Se­nior Supt John­nie Abra­ham, in fight­ing crime in the area."Be­tween 2012 and 2013 we formed a team, spear­head­ed by Abra­ham, and es­tab­lished a se­ries of com­mu­ni­ty po­lice groups through­out Cou­va North."

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Ram­di­al said she had al­so spo­ken to Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith about the high crime rate in her con­stituen­cy as well as act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams.The T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the scene of the shootout yes­ter­day and found a ray of hope amidst the re­ports of vi­o­lence, teen preg­nan­cies and drug ad­dic­tion.A stone's throw from "The Wall", at the cor­ner of Mun­gal Street, an­oth­er no­to­ri­ous drugs area, stood the Life Hope Cen­tre.

Of­fice man­ag­er Gweneth Stu­art and Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist pas­tor Cliff Shameerudeen were busy at work. About 20 young chil­dren vis­it the cen­tre every af­ter­noon from Mon­day to Thurs­day for help with their home­work."We are try­ing to work with them at a ten­der age. We teach them about hon­esty, re­spect­ing oth­er peo­ple's prop­er­ty and bul­ly­ing," Stu­art said.Young peo­ple and par­ents, from 16 to 60, are al­so giv­en free com­put­er lit­er­a­cy cours­es to help them get bet­ter jobs, she added.

Shameerudeen said he knew of two school­girls who were preg­nant and said young peo­ple came to the cen­tre dai­ly ask­ing for coun­selling."We are mak­ing a dif­fer­ence. We are now be­gin­ning to reach those more at risk," Stu­art said.The cen­tre, set up in the area a year ago, is be­gin­ning to be a fa­mil­iar and trust­ed place.The cen­tre has host­ed a child pro­tec­tion work­shop in Brick­field and par­ent­ing and self-es­teem ses­sions for chil­dren at the of­fice.


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