Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds, re­ceived a do­na­tion of Vis­it, Board, Search and Seizure (VB­SS) Kit and Equip­ment, as well as Con­sum­ables for Cap­i­tal As­sets of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF), from the Unit­ed Na­tions Of­fice on Drugs and Crime (UN­ODC) work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da.

Pre­sent­ing the equip­ment at a han­dover cer­e­mo­ny at the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) Head­quar­ters at Staubles Bay in Ch­aguara­mas were High Com­mis­sion­er of Cana­da to T&T, Arif Ke­shani and Crime Pre­ven­tion and Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Pro­gram Of­fi­cer of the UN­ODC, Jose­fi­na Otero.

The do­nat­ed items com­pris­ing op­er­a­tional gear, tac­ti­cal equip­ment and spare parts con­sum­ables for cap­i­tal as­sets, will sup­port train­ing ex­er­cis­es for mem­bers of the TTCG geared to­wards bol­ster­ing mar­itime search and seizure op­er­a­tions. Items in­clude tac­ti­cal vests, hel­mets, hand­held met­al de­tec­tors, ra­dio com­mu­ni­ca­tion de­vices, pro­tec­tive hear­ing ap­pa­ra­tus, as well as con­sum­ables for the main­te­nance of TTCG ves­sels.

Min­is­ter Hinds said, “In the area of ca­pac­i­ty de­vel­op­ment of our law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, in­clud­ing De­fence Force per­son­nel, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty is pur­su­ing new and in­no­v­a­tive ar­eas for in­ter­na­tion­al de­fence and se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion, which will im­prove the ca­reer ex­pe­ri­ence of our mil­i­tary per­son­nel and en­hance their pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties.

This in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion agen­da is be­ing pur­sued with all of our in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners, in­clud­ing Cana­da and the UN­ODC”. This, the Min­is­ter said, would re­dound to up-skilling and pro­fes­sion­al­iza­tion op­por­tu­ni­ties, as well as joint learn­ing and joint op­er­a­tions plat­forms.