An ex­plo­sion of gang war­fare and gang re­cruit­ment com­bined with the drug and gun trade is threat­en­ing to un­hinge the coun­try from all cor­ners, ac­cord­ing to a re­cent in­tel­li­gence re­port pre­pared by one of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice's in­tel­li­gence units.

The se­cret re­port ob­tained by the Sun­day Guardian main­ly ad­dressed crim­i­nal gangs in the coun­try. The re­port pre­pared on May 20 of this year paints a grim pic­ture for law en­force­ment of­fi­cers faced with bat­tling the hy­dra-head­ed mon­ster in T&T called crime.

The re­port gives a com­pre­hen­sive break down of the nine po­lice di­vi­sion—the chal­lenges they face in restor­ing law and or­der and the ma­jor un­der­world fig­ures that are re­spon­si­ble for the law­less­ness in these di­vi­sions.

The com­mon prob­lem high­light­ed in most of the di­vi­sions is heav­i­ly linked to ri­val gangs fight­ing for turf, cre­at­ing a fast-grow­ing nar­co-state.

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

High­light­ing the main is­sues af­fect­ing the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion, the re­port stat­ed, "The gangs are seek­ing to gain more con­trol as it per­tains to ar­eas un­der purview (drug turf). Gangs are re­cruit­ing new mem­bers/as­so­ciates at an alarm­ing rate (high­er prof­its)."

Join­ing gangs seems to be a com­mon ca­reer choice for young men in these crime hotspots. The re­port al­so out­lined the is­sue of fi­nances, point­ing to con­tracts falling in­to the hands of re­put­ed gang lead­ers, with oth­er sources of in­come com­ing from drug traf­fick­ing and rob­beries.

Six un­der­world fig­ures have been con­tribut­ing to the crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in Port-of-Spain and en­vi­rons.

•In Beetham Gar­dens—AV from the Ras­ta City gang.

•Sea Lots—CB al­so of the Ras­ta City gang.

•St Paul Street, Port-of-Spain—CL from the Ras­ta City gang car­ries the alias of a fa­mous Amer­i­can box­er.

•East Dry Riv­er Port-of-Spain—AW af­fil­i­at­ed with Ras­ta City is nick­named af­ter a day of the week.

•Laven­tille—a re­put­ed gang leader with the ini­tials AB is con­nect­ed to the Mus­lim gang.

•Belle Eau Road—KJ from Ras­ta City gang.

North­ern Di­vi­sion

An as­sess­ment of North­ern Di­vi­sion al­so showed a sim­i­lar pat­tern of heavy gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties. The re­port not­ed that there was gang war­fare based on con­tracts in the Mal­oney area, while gangs fought for drug turfs in La Hor­quet­ta. Gang reprisals were not­ed be­tween the Young Team in Tu­na­puna and the Co­co Team in St Au­gus­tine.

Again, the un­der­world fig­ures in this area were clas­si­fied as ei­ther be­ing af­fil­i­at­ed with the Mus­lim or Ras­ta City gangs.

•In the Arou­ca area, a man with the ini­tials WG and alias Fin­gers is con­nect­ed to Ras­ta City.

•In the Mal­oney area, MW of Ras­ta City and JT from the Mus­lim gang were at the cen­tre of the crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

•In Cara­po a man with the ini­tials RK con­nect­ed to the Mus­lim gang and an­oth­er man with the ini­tials OA were of par­tic­u­lar con­cern to law en­force­ment au­thor­i­ties.

•In the La Hor­quet­ta area PJ and TW were those re­spon­si­ble for per­pet­u­at­ing crime.

West­ern Di­vi­sion

West­ern Di­vi­sion prob­lems are al­so of a sim­i­lar na­ture. Ac­cord­ing to the in­tel­li­gence unit's re­port, "Gang af­fil­i­a­tion is pri­mar­i­ly Ras­ta City and Mus­lim; the com­mu­ni­ties are be­ing dis­trib­uted based on their af­fil­i­a­tions. The Ras­tas are seek­ing to con­trol the coastal ar­eas (Al­can Bay), which are very lu­cra­tive."

The con­fi­den­tial re­port stat­ed "gangs are be­com­ing more brazen in the West­ern Di­vi­sion and the orig­i­nal crim­i­nal gangs hold a tac­ti­cal ad­van­tage be­cause of ter­rain and pose a chal­lenge for law en­force­ment".

The re­port al­so not­ed that in the West­ern Di­vi­sion "gang heads while not ac­tive­ly en­gaged in vi­o­lence, lend sup­port to war­ring fac­tions".

Ac­cord­ing to the in­tel­li­gence unit, the main un­der­world fig­ures con­tribut­ing to crime in the West­ern Di­vi­sion are:

•A re­put­ed gang leader with the alias Dog­gy in Diego Mar­tin.

•NP is af­fil­i­at­ed with the Mus­lim gang in La Hor­quette Road, Point Cumana.

•DG is in the La Puer­ta area, Diego Mar­tin.

•SR from Diego Mar­tin is af­fil­i­at­ed with the Mus­lim gang.

•KF from the Ras­ta City gang is al­so from Diego Mar­tin.

•PC from the Care­nage area has been de­scribed as neu­tral.

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

The gang prob­lem al­so stretched across to the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion as the re­port stat­ed "Un­ruly Mus­lims and oth­ers are try­ing to main­tain rel­e­vance (most were killed by law en­force­ment) and gangs were try­ing to main­tain fam­i­ly crim­i­nal lega­cy and in­flu­ence," in this area.

The ma­jor crim­i­nal fig­ures iden­ti­fied in this area are the sons of dead crim­i­nals or those now in­car­cer­at­ed.

•In the En­ter­prise area, a man with the ini­tials KA and con­nect­ed to the Mus­lim gang is re­spon­si­ble for call­ing the shots. His fa­ther, a crim­i­nal gang leader from cen­tral Trinidad had been shot dead near his busi­ness place three years ago.

•In En­ter­prise, DN from the Un­ruly ISIS gang is run­ning the show.

•MB alias "B" ran the Clax­ton Bay and Cal­i­for­nia ar­eas.

• RM con­trols Chase Vil­lage in Ch­agua­nas.

North East­ern Di­vi­sion

In­ter­est­ing­ly, North East­ern Di­vi­sion was termed in the re­port as "The Sleep­ing Gi­ant." While ac­knowl­edg­ing there was a "sem­blance of peace in the di­vi­sion", they said es­tab­lished drug king­pins "con­tributed to the height­ened state of nar­co trade tak­ing place".

Al­though there is a "sur­plus of nar­co ac­tiv­i­ty there are re­spect­ed bound­aries," the in­tel­li­gence re­port point­ed out.

The in­tel­li­gence unit al­so not­ed an alarm­ing trend which saw, "A new wave of youths pledg­ing al­le­giance to Ras­ta City and Mus­lim."

The re­port al­so found that most of the orig­i­nal crim­i­nal gangs were main­ly neu­tral and the pow­er lies in the hands of old­er mem­bers. The ma­jor play­ers re­spon­si­ble for the crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in the North-East­ern Di­vi­sion fall in the hands of four men in this area.

•In El So­cor­ro there are two men with the ini­tials BR alias "Bob­man" and RS alias "Sooks".

•On the North Coast there is a man with the ini­tials VM.

•In the Aranguez area JB is known by the alias "Ab­dul".

East­ern Di­vi­sion

The prob­lems in the East­ern Di­vi­sion might not be as se­vere as some of the oth­er di­vi­sions, but the alarm­ing drug trade tak­ing place on the North Coast is a ma­jor is­sue af­fect­ing this area, the re­port re­vealed. Added to this is il­le­gal quar­ry­ing and mar­i­jua­na cul­ti­va­tion.

The ma­jor un­der­world fig­ures dri­ving this crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty are:

•CL in the To­co area

•Guayagua­yare area—BW al­so known as "Bingy" and CH, a right-hand man of BW, af­fil­i­at­ed with the Mus­lim gang.

South West­ern Di­vi­sion

Peren­ni­al drug traf­fick­ing es­tab­lished by orig­i­nal crim­i­nal gangs, the firearms trade, and smug­gling of Latin Amer­i­can women which have be­come a na­tion­al is­sue are the ma­jor crime prob­lems that plague the South West­ern Di­vi­sion.

The re­port points to three key crim­i­nal fig­ures that have en­gaged in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in this area:

•La Brea—KA.

•Los Ba­jos/San­ta Flo­ra—KY aka BIT.

•Erin—SC aka Popo.

South­ern Di­vi­sion

In the South­ern Po­lice Di­vi­sion, the is­sue of the Ras­ta City gang stamp­ing its au­thor­i­ty was of sig­nif­i­cant con­cern to po­lice as the re­port point­ed to "Ras­ta City at­tempt­ing to gain con­trol of ac­cess points along the coastal ar­eas."

An in­tel­li­gence source told the Sun­day Guardian this was a way to en­sure that their il­le­gal ship­ment of guns and drugs are eas­i­ly brought in­to the coun­try.

Oth­er ma­jor is­sues faced by this di­vi­sion in­clud­ed drug dis­tri­b­u­tion groups and drug traf­fick­ing as well as the firearms trade. The re­port al­so made men­tion of oth­er gangs op­er­at­ing in this di­vi­sion.

Law en­force­ment sin­gled out six main crim­i­nal fig­ures re­spon­si­ble for the il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties in this area.

•RL in San Fer­nan­do.

•KC from Spring­vale, San Fer­nan­do.

•TC from Vista­bel­la.

•A man with the alias Wild­man from Mara­bel­la.

•SJ from Moru­ga.

•MM from King's Wharf in San Fer­nan­do.

To­ba­go Di­vi­sion

The To­ba­go Di­vi­son, ac­cord­ing to the re­port, faced two sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems: "nar­co-tourism and gang de­vel­op­ment".

The key un­der­world fig­ures po­lice be­lieve have con­tributed to these crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties are:

•AW from Ply­mouth.

•AW and CL from Spring Gar­den.

•RS from Buc­coo.

•AB with the alias Fa­ther B from Crown Point/Bon Ac­cord.

PROB­LEMS IN PO­LICE DI­VI­SIONS:

POS Di­vi­sion:

*Gangs seek­ing con­trol of more turf

*Gangs re­cruit­ing new mem­bers at an alarm­ing rate

*Fight for state con­tracts and drug traf­fick­ing

North­ern Di­vi­sion:

*Gang war­fare based on con­tracts (Mal­oney)

*Gangs fight­ing for drug turfs (La Hor­quet­ta)

*Gang reprisals—Young team (Tu­na­puna) vs Co­co team

(St Au­gus­tine)

West­ern Di­vi­sion:

*Gang af­fil­i­a­tion—pri­mar­i­ly Ras­ta City and Mus­lim

*Ras­ta City gang seek­ing to con­trol coastal ar­eas (Al­can Bay) which are very lu­cra­tive

*Gangs are be­com­ing more brazen in the West­ern Di­vi­sion

*Gang heads while not ac­tive­ly in­volved in vi­o­lence, lend sup­port to war­ring fac­tions

North East­ern Di­vi­sion

*A new wave of youths pledg­ing al­le­giance to Ras­ta City and the Mus­lim gangs

*Es­tab­lished drug king­pins, which con­tributes to a heigh­t­end state of nar­co trade tak­ing place

*Sur­plus of nar­co ac­tiv­i­ty, how­ev­er, there are re­spect­ed bound­aries

*Most of the Orig­i­nal Crim­i­nal Gangs(OCG's) main­ly neu­tral and pow­er lies in the hands of the old­er mem­bers

East­ern Di­vi­sion

*Nar­co traf­fick­ing along the East Coast

*Il­le­gal quar­ry­ing

*Mar­i­jua­na cul­ti­va­tion

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion:

*Gangs try­ing to main­tain fam­i­ly crim­i­nal lega­cy and in­flu­ence

*Un­ruly Mus­lims and oth­ers try­ing to main­tain rel­e­vance

*Drug traf­fick­ing

South West­ern Di­vi­sion

*Drug traf­fick­ing by es­tab­lished Orig­i­nal Crim­i­nal Gangs (OCGs)

*Hu­man smug­gling (Latin Amer­i­cans)

*Firearms trade

South­ern Di­vi­sion

*Ras­ta City at­tempt­ing to gain con­trol of coastal ar­eas

*Drug dis­tri­b­u­tion groups for drug traf­fick­ing

*Firearms trade

*Oth­er neu­tral gangs op­er­at­ing

To­ba­go Di­vi­sion

*Nar­co tourism

*Gang de­vel­op­ment