Chester Sam­bra­no

Po­lice ar­rest­ed four men and seized ex­ca­va­tion equip­ment on Sat­ur­day af­ter the Mul­ti-Agency Task Force (MATF) act­ed on re­ports from the Forestry Di­vi­sion, rel­a­tive to il­le­gal quar­ry­ing be­ing con­duct­ed in an area known as Five Acres, Ve­ga De Oropouche, San­gre Grande.

The TTPS said the MATF com­menced IN­VES­TI­GA­TION PLAN- VAUX­HALL, as an in­tel­li­gence-based thrust to in­ter­dict il­le­gal ac­tors and con­duct­ed ex­ten­sive sur­veil­lance of the area.

They ob­tained in­for­ma­tion and in­tel­li­gence, which high­light­ed dif­fer­ent il­le­gal op­er­a­tors con­duct­ing un­li­censed and unau­tho­rized min­ing, dig­ging and pro­cess­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in the area, which is des­ig­nat­ed as part of a For­est Re­serve.

The Po­lice said giv­en the in­tel­li­gence gath­ered, the MATF planned and ex­e­cut­ed Op­er­a­tion VAUX­HALL, in con­junc­tion with the op­er­a­tors of the Mul­ti-Op­tion Po­lice Sec­tion (M.O.P.S.) and with ad­di­tion­al sup­port from the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Task Force (N.O.T.F.) and the TTPS Air Sup­port Unit (ASU).

Dur­ing the ear­ly hours of Sat­ur­day 2nd De­cem­ber 2023, MOPS with MATF in­ves­ti­ga­tors en­tered the Five Acres For­est Re­serve, where they ob­served peo­ple op­er­at­ing ex­ca­va­tors to dig ma­te­r­i­al, load trucks and move dirt- type ma­te­r­i­al at var­i­ous points at the site.

An in­ter­dic­tion process was ex­e­cut­ed by mem­bers of the MATF, sup­port­ed by the NOTF and ASU per­son­nel, which led to the ar­rest of four peo­ple. The in­ves­ti­ga­tors al­so seized one CAT 336 Ex­ca­va­tor, one CAT 320 Ex­ca­va­tor, one suc­tion pump and two lengths of two-inch di­am­e­ter hose. They al­so seized a quan­ti­ty of doc­u­ments re­lat­ed to the quar­ry­ing ac­tiv­i­ty.

The ar­rest­ed men were con­veyed to the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion pend­ing fur­ther en­quiries. The op­er­a­tion was co­or­di­nat­ed by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Er­la Christo­pher and DCP (Ag.) Curt Si­mon and di­rect­ly su­per­vised by ASP Haynes.