Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

A po­lice of­fi­cer and a Trini­bad artiste are among the lat­est peo­ple to have de­ten­tion or­ders is­sued against them.

Ac­cord­ing to the de­ten­tion or­ders gazetted on Mon­day, con­sta­ble Phillip Mar­cus Aw­ing will re­main in cus­tody un­til the State of Emer­gency (SoE) ends in Feb­ru­ary next year. He was de­tained for his al­leged in­volve­ment in a plot to mur­der a Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter.

Ac­cord­ing to the Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­der, Aw­ing, of Roy Mootoo Av­enue, San­gre Grande, is a mem­ber of an or­gan­ised crime group (OCG) in­volved in traf­fick­ing il­le­gal arms, mon­ey laun­der­ing, and il­le­gal quar­ry­ing.

“The OCG has ac­cess to a cache of high-pow­ered firearms. The de­tainee and oth­ers in­tend to im­mi­nent­ly ex­e­cute the as­sas­si­na­tion of a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and to es­ca­late at­tacks against ri­val gangs in pub­lic spaces us­ing high-pow­ered firearms. The de­tainee, who is an ac­tive-du­ty po­lice of­fi­cer, pro­vides the OCG with sen­si­tive de­tails of po­lice op­er­a­tions and pro­vides op­er­a­tional sup­port,” the or­der stat­ed.

The or­der, made on No­vem­ber 19, said Aw­ing’s de­ten­tion was nec­es­sary to dis­rupt the group’s op­er­a­tional plan­ning and pre­vent fur­ther acts of vi­o­lence that pose a clear and present threat to pub­lic safe­ty.

Aw­ing, who was ar­rest­ed on No­vem­ber 24, joins busi­ness­man Dan­ny Guer­ra, who is al­so de­tained on in­for­ma­tion he was plan­ning to as­sas­si­nate an un­named Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter.

Guer­ra and his son were charged on Oc­to­ber 11 with un­law­ful pro­cess­ing of ag­gre­gate with­out a li­cence from the Min­istry of En­er­gy. They were lat­er grant­ed $50,000 bail.

Guer­ra is the own­er of D Guer­ra Ltd. His son Garvin Guer­ra and 16 oth­ers were held on Oc­to­ber 9, af­ter po­lice shut down an il­le­gal quar­ry at Manuel Con­go, Gua­napo.

Garvin, of Oropouche Road, San­gre Grande, and Ron­del “Patch” Adol­phus, of Im­mortelle Cres­cent, North East­ern Set­tle­ment, San­gre Grande, are al­so be­ing de­tained for plot­ting to mur­der a Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter.

And artiste Joseph “Medz Boss” Ol­livierre, of 18th Street, Beetham Gar­dens, was has been de­tained af­ter be­ing iden­ti­fied as the leader of an OCG af­fil­i­at­ed to the 7 Gang.

“He has been linked to an or­gan­ised crim­i­nal net­work that is cur­rent­ly en­gaged in drug traf­fick­ing, firearm-re­lat­ed of­fences, and oth­er vi­o­lent crimes. The OCG en­gages in armed rob­beries and then sells the stolen items and us­es the cash to fi­nance oth­er gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty. The de­tainee and oth­er mem­bers of the group are ac­tive­ly plan­ning and prepar­ing to as­sist in the ex­e­cu­tion of vi­o­lent reprisal at­tacks util­is­ing high-pow­ered firearms in pub­lic spaces that would cre­ate a sub­stan­tial risk of harm to by­standers and civil­ians. These ac­tiv­i­ties are a re­al and im­mi­nent threat to pub­lic safe­ty,” the or­der said.

Ol­livierre was charged in March last year with be­ing a gang mem­ber and pro­fess­ing to be­ing a gang mem­ber. He was grant­ed $40,000 bail.

De­ten­tion or­ders were al­so ex­e­cut­ed on Shaquille “Dirts­man” Mc In­tyre, of Co­conut Dri­ve, Mt Hope Ex­ten­sion, San Juan, and Ker­win “Knox” Ead­ie, of Bel­mont Val­ley Road, Bel­mont.

Mc In­tyre is al­leged to be a known shoot­er with­in the Six Gang, with ac­cess to a cache of high-pow­ered firearms.

“In­tel­li­gence re­veals that the de­tainee and oth­ers plan im­mi­nent fu­ture acts in­volv­ing the de­lib­er­ate use of in­dis­crim­i­nate or sat­u­ra­tion gun­fire in­to pop­u­lat­ed res­i­den­tial ar­eas to flush out or kill tar­gets us­ing high-pow­ered firearms, a tac­tic which has al­ready been op­er­a­tionalised,” the or­der said.

Ead­ie is the leader of the “Alien/7” gang.

“This OCG, which has ac­cess to a cache of weapons, is cur­rent­ly en­gaged in a planned takeover of a ri­val OCG’s turf util­is­ing im­mi­nent ran­dom shoot­ings in pub­lic ar­eas. He and oth­ers plan to con­tin­ue a cam­paign of vi­o­lence, in­clud­ing armed at­tacks and re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings, in the Bel­mont area. The OCG has been linked to re­cent mur­ders and wound­ings and has a demon­strat­ed in­tent to con­duct fur­ther vi­o­lent acts in pub­lic spaces util­is­ing high-pow­ered firearms, pos­ing a clear and present threat to civil­ian life,” his or­der read.