The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty has is­sued three new Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2025, tar­get­ing high-rank­ing mem­bers of or­gan­ised crime groups in T&T.

The or­ders, pub­lished in the Gov­ern­ment Gazette, were is­sued to pre­vent in­di­vid­u­als from act­ing in ways that could threat­en pub­lic safe­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to the Gazette, on Au­gust 21, Joel Plaza, al­so known as Jamol Plaza or “Pa­pi,” of Ari­ma, was placed un­der de­ten­tion.

Plaza is a key mem­ber of the Sev­en Gang fac­tion and has been ac­cused of be­ing in­volved in a se­ries of vi­o­lent, firearms-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents, in­clud­ing a mass shoot­ing on Ju­ly 16.

Au­thor­i­ties said his de­ten­tion was nec­es­sary to dis­rupt po­ten­tial re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks and pre­vent fur­ther acts of vi­o­lence in pub­lic spaces.

Two more de­ten­tion or­ders were is­sued on Sep­tem­ber 8. An­tho­ny Corn­wall, al­so known as “Nomo,” of Pe­nal, who is said to be sec­ond in com­mand of the Pe­gus Gang af­fil­i­at­ed with the Rad­i­cal Is­lam­ic or­gan­ised crime group, was de­tained for his al­leged in­volve­ment in ex­tor­tion, mur­der, and firearms traf­fick­ing.

Of­fi­cials claimed Corn­wall and oth­er gang mem­bers planned to es­ca­late vi­o­lence against ri­val gangs through pub­lic shoot­ings and re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks.

Tre­ston Nicholas Pe­gus, al­so known as “Gussy” or “P Man,” said to be the leader of the Pe­gus Gang, was al­so de­tained. Au­thor­i­ties al­leged that Pe­gus and his as­so­ciates are en­gaged in or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty and pose a clear and present threat to pub­lic safe­ty.

All three de­tainees have been or­dered to be held at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma, or at such oth­er lo­ca­tions as the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty may di­rect.

Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der em­pha­sised that these pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders are a nec­es­sary mea­sure to pre­vent crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, dis­rupt op­er­a­tional plan­ning by or­gan­ised crime groups, and safe­guard the pub­lic from im­mi­nent harm.

The or­ders are be­ing car­ried out un­der Reg­u­la­tion 14 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, which al­lows for the pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion of per­sons deemed a threat to pub­lic safe­ty.

The TTPS has re­vealed that 61 peo­ple were de­tained un­der de­ten­tion or­ders, with 60 still in cus­tody and 45 out­stand­ing.

Mean­while, dur­ing a TTPS me­dia brief­ing at Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing yes­ter­day, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Op­er­a­tions, Ju­nior Ben­jamin said the State of Emer­gency has so far yield­ed 4,055 op­er­a­tions tar­get­ing 1,514 pri­or­i­ty of­fend­ers, re­sult­ing in 25,656 search­es and 1,775 ar­rests.

Ben­jamin said dur­ing these op­er­a­tions, of­fi­cers re­cov­ered 118 firearms, 1,477 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion, 227.7 kilo­grammes of cannabis, 133 mar­i­jua­na plants with 30 seedlings, and 7 kilo­grammes of co­caine.

The Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice cred­it­ed the SoE with a 41 per cent re­duc­tion in homi­cides, a 22 per cent drop in vi­o­lent crimes, a 15 per cent de­crease in se­ri­ous re­port­ed crimes, and a 34 per cent fall in mo­tor ve­hi­cle lar­ce­nies, at­tribut­ing the re­sults to of­fi­cer ef­forts and strate­gic lead­er­ship.