Masked, heavily armed members of the Guard and Emergency branch locked down the Maximum Security Prison at Piarco and conducted a raid early Saturday morning.
The Sunday Guardian confirmed that ten cells were suddenly and electronically opened and the prisoners were pulled out just after 2 am and kept along the corridors until the search was over just before 5 am yesterday.
The Sunday Guardian was told that Rajaee Ali—accused of the murder of Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal—was among the ten men whose cells were searched.
The Sunday Guardian learned that two mobile phones were found in the prisoners' cells and was taken away by the police.
On Saturday just hours after the search was conducted and the mobile phones seized, two people were held for questioning in relation to the murder of the prison officer in Malabar on Tuesday.
On Tuesday 50-year old Acting Superintendent of Prisons Wayne Jackson, who was assigned to the same Maximum Security Prison, was shot repeatedly as he was opening the gate to his home. Jackson served in the T&T Prisons Service for over 30 years. Investigators said Jackson had just pulled up in his driveway at around 6.30 pm when two gunmen ambushed him and shot him dead. Investigators recovered some 30 spent shells at the scene.
During the prison lockdown, the Sunday Guardian learned that the prisoners were stripped naked and had their hands bound with tie-straps while the masked G&E members searched the cells. The masked police were armed with machine guns and had handguns strapped to their legs.
The men, according to information received from inside the prison, were made to kneel while the cells were searched. They were then stripped naked and left with guns trained on them while the search of the cells was carried out.
The insider said that during a previous visit Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith had threatened Ali.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Griffith confirmed the search. He did not deny that Ali was a part of the group of men whose cells were searched.
"I am aware, very aware of what you are talking about," Griffith said when asked to confirm the raid.
"You realise I'm not denying that but I will say that if he is telling people that I threatened him then he sounding like he's scared.
"But I not going to give any details of the operation. I will say that we will get everyone involved in the death of the prison officer."
On Thursday, one day after the shooting, Griffith was pictured with a group of masked officers just outside the prison. He and the specialised unit of officers conducted a walk-through at Maximum Security Prison on Thursday. While Griffith did not say too much about the walk-through, a media release from the T&T Police Service soon after his visit said that the exercise was conducted in a bid to ascertain areas where police officers will be deployed within the Maximum Security Prison.
It was reported on Friday that Griffith had implanted a special unit of police officers into the prison to ensure extra security.
The Sunday Guardian understands that the additional security put in place by Griffith is to ensure a lockdown of information and contraband in and out of the prison, and that "no shots" can be called from behind prison walls.