A lo­cal record­ing artist ap­peared be­fore the North High Court yes­ter­day,

Mon­day af­ter he was ar­rest­ed and charged un­der the An­ti-Gang Act of 2021.

In a state­ment the TTPS said Joseph Ol­livierre wide­ly known as MEDZ BOSS, was charged with:

1. Be­ing a Gang Mem­ber Con­trary to Sec­tion 5 (1)(b).

2. Pro­fess­ing to be­ing a gang mem­ber con­trary to Sec­tion 5(1)(d).

The TTPS said Medz Boss was grant­ed $40,000 bail with a sure­ty when he ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Mar­garet Sookraj-Goswa­mi.

It said the charges fol­low an ex­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit (SIU) Gang En­force­ment Team, fo­cus­ing pri­mar­i­ly on videos post­ed on so­cial me­dia plat­forms pro­mot­ing gang vi­o­lence and gang cul­ture.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Er­la Christo­pher stat­ed, “This case un­der­scores our un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to ad­dress and com­bat the pro­mo­tion of gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly through in­flu­en­tial fig­ures in the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try.

The lure of gangs is per­va­sive, as gang-cul­ture is por­trayed as glam­ourous and the in-thing, while we know oth­er­wise. Gang life is a di­rect path­way to pover­ty, prison and an ear­ly grave, as young men are mere pawns who are eas­i­ly re­placed”. She added, “The TTPS will con­tin­ue to work tire­less­ly to pro­tect our cit­i­zens, es­pe­cial­ly the young and vul­ner­a­ble, who al­so fall vic­tim to the gang vi­o­lence and cul­ture that we vow to stamp out from our com­mu­ni­ties.”

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, on Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 29, 2024, of­fi­cers from the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit, un­der the su­per­vi­sion of In­sp. Stan­ley,

col­lab­o­rat­ed with the Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB), In­ter Agency

Task Force, and K-9 Unit to ex­e­cute an op­er­a­tion at Beetham Gar­dens, Port- of-Spain.

This op­er­a­tion led to the ar­rest of Medz Boss, with a sub­se­quent war­rant ex­e­cut­ed at his res­i­dence, fol­lowed by fur­ther in­quiries and thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tions by PC Mc Mil­lan all un­der the guid­ance and ad­vice of Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Pa­ponette and the Le­gal Of­fi­cer Za­heer Ali of the SIU.

The ac­cused is due to re-ap­pear in court on 15th March 2024.