One se­nior of­fi­cial from the TTPS be­lieves strip clubs, which are il­le­gal in T&T, flour­ish be­hind the scenes at cer­tain en­ter­tain­ment spots be­cause of the in­ac­tion of the ju­di­cia­ry.

His com­ment came af­ter 51 peo­ple were held late Thurs­day night and ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing dur­ing a raid at the Co­paca­bana Ho­tel.

The se­nior of­fi­cial told Guardian Me­dia, each time these es­tab­lish­ments are brought be­fore the courts to re­new their liquor li­cense, the mag­is­trate would re­peat­ed­ly re­new their li­cens­es de­spite doc­u­men­ta­tion pro­vid­ed to prove the il­le­gal en­gage­ments.

He said there were sev­er­al es­tab­lish­ments in T&T, where strip­ping and lewd danc­ing form part of their ser­vices, which out­right­ly breach­es the con­di­tions you must op­er­ate un­der as a ho­tel own­er.

He said the TTPS has made many ob­jec­tions to these li­cens­es be­ing re­newed but the mag­is­trate had the fi­nal say.

Thurs­day night in­to ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing po­lice raid­ed for yet an­oth­er time, the Co­paca­bana Ho­tel and Restau­rant at Dun­don­ald Street in Port-of-Spain.

A to­tal of 51 peo­ple were ar­rest­ed.

Po­lice said 35 peo­ple were Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Venezue­lan fe­male na­tion­als.

While 16 of those held were male pa­trons at the es­tab­lish­ment.

The raid was con­duct­ed by po­lice of­fi­cers act­ing on in­tel­li­gence.

At the time of the bust, which was car­ried out be­tween the hours of 11 pm – 3 am, it was said some males and fe­males ar­rest­ed, were en­gaged in lewd danc­ing when caught by of­fi­cers.

Re­ports in­di­cate, the women are be­lieved to be in the coun­try il­le­gal­ly and are be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed for pos­si­ble so­lic­it­ing, pros­ti­tu­tion and op­er­at­ing a broth­el.

One of the men held in the raid was charged with mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion.

The raid was or­gan­ised by of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion.

In Feb­ru­ary 2018, sev­er­al il­le­gal im­mi­grants were among 18 peo­ple ar­rest­ed dur­ing a bust at Co­paca­bana ho­tel.

Four­teen from the il­le­gal lot made up fe­male na­tion­als from the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Venezuela and Co­lum­bia.

Of­fi­cers from the Port-of-Spain CID who con­duct­ed the raid said they be­lieved the women were be­ing used for lewd danc­ing.

In that same year in April, the in­fa­mous es­tab­lish­ment was again raid­ed, this time nine Venezue­lan women and one man were de­tained fol­low­ing the crack­down. They were all charged with be­ing in breach of im­mi­gra­tion laws af­ter they could not pro­vide any trav­el doc­u­ments.

In Ju­ly 2019, dur­ing a clam­p­down by Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT) at a Cunu­pia ho­tel, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith vowed to take ac­tion against hu­man traf­fick­ing and the ex­ploita­tion of women and mi­nors es­pe­cial­ly when it came to them be­ing used at night clubs, bars, and broth­els.

He had al­so stat­ed there were rogue of­fi­cers who are on “pay­roll” with il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties of these clubs, and op­er­a­tors are of­ten tipped off about a planned bust be­fore it hap­pens, so when it does, things are hid­den.