AKASH SAMAROO
Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, says it is untrue that he told the founder of the Drugs Sou Sou, via a telephone conversation, he was doing nothing wrong.
And one day after that allegation was made, the commissioner has decided to cut short his vacation by a couple days; he will return to this country later today.
A report in the Express Newspaper alleges that Commissioner Griffith told DSS founder Keron Clarke that the police cannot shut him down because he is not committing a crime.
However speaking on CNC3’s The Morning Brew this morning, the top cop said that article is erroneous
“The same Express will say that in the conversation, I said ‘you are being investigated’. If someone is being investigated, then I cannot say ‘you are doing nothing wrong’, so that is a lie,” Commissioner Griffith asserts in the interview.
“The fact of the matter is, what I stated is that if persons decide to put money in a scheme—and scheme being the operative word—I cannot police stupidity, so that is not a crime. That is what I stated,” he explained. “However, what is being investigated is the receiver. Are you paying the relevant taxes? Do you have the relevant documentation? Are you adhering to the laws of financing in this country?”
The Commissioner said this isn’t an attack on poor people who seek to benefit from the Sou Sou. He said this is a matter of national security and the tentacles of the Drugs Sou Sou run deep.
“A politician had TT$140,000 in an account and there was all hell they wanted to pay based on the politician, and rightfully so! And that is being investigated,” Griffith observes. “But someone has $22 million—a Lance Corporal in the Army, $22 million in cash—in shelves in the roof and all of that, and people are saying that is not a concern, ‘give the man he money’.”
“No! We have to check,” he asserted. “When you have $22 million, we need to verify that is not money laundering.”
