Lead Editor-Newsgathering
chester.sambrano
@guardian.co.tt
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has called for the setting up of an extortion unit within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).
The call was made by Moonilal during his contribution to the 2024 Budget debate yesterday.
It followed recent reports of alleged extortion being made against business people by gang members.
Moonilal expressed deep concern with this new form of extortion, in which gangsters put pressure on business people to pay them for security and threaten to harm them and their families if the money is not paid.
After quoting an exclusive T&T Guardian Newspaper article (October 10) which yesterday highlighted the plight of businessmen in Bamboo No 2, Dr Moonilal said, “It is time the police, the TTPS, creates an extortion unit to deal with this specific issue of extortion.”
He also pointed out that stiffer penalties are needed to combat the issue.
He said this may also require amending the Larceny Act and the possible creation of a new offence of ‘extortion by gang members’, as the offence now only carries a five-year maximum penalty if found guilty.
“This requires a stiff penalty, a stiff sentence to send the message,” he said.
Moonilal, the Opposition shadow minister of National Security, also felt that “the time is coming when we may need international help.”
He said when businesses close down there is a negative rippling effect on workers, taxes and, by extension, the economy.
“Businessmen and women are telling you that they prefer to go and live abroad than to be here for gang members to be calling them for protection money and security payments and so on,” he said.
He also called on the police to be more vigilant, as he told them not to expect businessmen to walk into a police station to make reports due to the fear of reprisals from the gang members.
“It has to be intelligence-driven,” he said.
Moonilal said the issue of extortion “is an urgent matter that the Government needs to address.”
On Tuesday, business owners at Bamboo No 2 told Guardian Media that they will be moving to lock down the area after certain hours by establishing a gated community to protect themselves from extortionists and other criminals.
They said that at least three business owners received threats–one via phone and the others through written notes dropped off at their business places. The business owners also said the extortionists are demanding monthly payments exceeding $100,000.
Last week, a contractor also gave Guardian Media recorded conversations between himself and an alleged gang leader, exposing a demand for $30,000 per month for protection and threatening violence at a construction site in east Trinidad if the payment was not made.