Of­fi­cers from the Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB), to­geth­er with the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion, con­duct­ed a joint ex­er­cise with prison staff at the Port-of-Spain Re­mand Fa­cil­i­ty on Thurs­day af­ter­noon to search for unau­tho­rised items among in­mates.

Sources con­firmed that the search­es be­gan just af­ter mid­day, al­though it was un­clear at the time of re­port­ing whether any con­tra­band had been seized.

Po­lice em­pha­sised that such ex­er­cis­es are rou­tine, con­duct­ed at pris­ons na­tion­wide to strength­en se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments.

Dur­ing a vis­it by Guardian Me­dia Ltd, GEB of­fi­cers clad in ri­ot sup­pres­sion gear were ob­served rid­ing in the tray of a cov­ered flatbed truck along New Street, be­side the prison com­pound, while heav­i­ly armed po­lice and prison of­fi­cers mon­i­tored bar­ri­cades tem­porar­i­ly block­ing civil­ian traf­fic at the street cor­ner.

Sources al­so not­ed the ar­rival of a se­nior prison of­fi­cer at the fa­cil­i­ty, re­port­ed­ly for a meet­ing at the com­pound dur­ing the ex­er­cise.