A ma­jor in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed be­tween 6:30 p.m. on Oc­to­ber 3 and 5:00 a.m. on Oc­to­ber 4, 2025, re­sult­ed in the dis­rup­tion of a con­tra­band smug­gling at­tempt near the Arou­ca Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison.

The co­or­di­nat­ed ex­er­cise was di­rect­ed by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin, and Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent of Pris­ons Lee Davis. It in­volved per­son­nel from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) Spe­cial­ist Units, Port of Spain Task Force, Mul­ti Op­er­a­tional Po­lice Sec­tion, Crime Scene Unit, Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice, and the Spe­cial In­ves­tiga­tive Unit.

The op­er­a­tion fol­lowed cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence that in­di­vid­u­als were us­ing a drone to de­liv­er con­tra­band in­to the prison. Of­fi­cers pro­ceed­ed to the Forde Street Ex­ten­sion, Bon Air area, where sur­veil­lance was car­ried out. A search of near­by bush­land led to the ar­rest of two sus­pects—a 13-year-old of Orop­une Gar­dens and a 26-year-old of Tu­na­puna—af­ter they at­tempt­ed to flee through veg­e­ta­tion and leapt from a 25-foot em­bank­ment. Both were cap­tured fol­low­ing a tar­get­ed search of a near­by riv­er.

Items seized in­clud­ed 1,050 grams of cannabis, 256 packs of Lucky Strike cig­a­rettes, 15 Sam­sung cell phones, 2 LCD screens, 1 DJI drone with con­troller, 16 drone bat­ter­ies, 7 rolls of thread, 1 pow­er bank, 12 charg­ing blocks, 20 packs of Man­ga­lore hemp, 12 lighters, 50 packs of Bam­bu rolling pa­per, 1 dig­i­tal scale, 16 wired head­sets, 1 wire­less head­set, 15 USB ca­bles, 4 nail clip­pers, 1 flick knife, and 1 nail file.

A premis­es at Forde Lane was al­so searched un­der Sec­tion 12 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2025, with no il­le­gal items found. One sus­pect sus­tained in­juries dur­ing his es­cape at­tempt and re­ceived med­ical treat­ment.

Si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, a search at the Arou­ca Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison un­cov­ered ad­di­tion­al con­tra­band.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue un­der the su­per­vi­sion of Act­ing Cor­po­ral Hyde. The TTPS and Prison Ser­vice have reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to pre­vent­ing il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties and strength­en­ing se­cu­ri­ty at cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties.