Sev­en new de­ten­tion or­ders is­sued by Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der yes­ter­day, have in­ten­si­fied the State’s crack­down on or­gan­ised crime, tar­get­ing men iden­ti­fied as key op­er­a­tives in net­works span­ning mul­ti­ple re­gions, with in­tel­li­gence point­ing to their roles in lead­er­ship, co­or­di­na­tion, en­force­ment, re­cruit­ment and drug traf­fick­ing.

Among those de­tained is Joshua “Ketchup” De­onar­ine, who was de­scribed as a shoot­er and en­forcer op­er­at­ing out of Freeport with al­leged links to a gang ac­tive in Cou­va, Cal­i­for­nia and Clax­ton Bay. Au­thor­i­ties say he is in­volved in vi­o­lent op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der and ex­tor­tion, and warned of a high risk of fur­ther shoot­ings and con­fronta­tions with ri­val groups.

In San­gre Grande, Romell Leza­ma was linked to an or­gan­ised crime group with ac­cess to high-pow­ered firearms and am­mu­ni­tion, with in­tel­li­gence in­di­cat­ing in­volve­ment in ex­tor­tion, ma­li­cious wound­ing and con­tract killings, as well as plans for re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks in Va­len­cia and sur­round­ing ar­eas.

From Mal­abar, Ari­ma, Jah­mali Clarke, al­so called “Mali,” has been iden­ti­fied as an af­fil­i­ate of the Re­sis­tance Gang, with al­leged in­volve­ment in armed rob­beries and threats against wit­ness­es, rais­ing con­cerns about in­tim­i­da­tion and es­ca­la­tion of vi­o­lence.

In Diego Mar­tin, Quin­cy “Tall P” Joseph has been iden­ti­fied as a high-risk fig­ure cur­rent­ly on bail for mur­der, with au­thor­i­ties say­ing he is at­tempt­ing to ex­pand con­trol over drug op­er­a­tions and il­le­gal firearms traf­fick­ing in the Dil­lon Street and Ceme­tery Street ar­eas through vi­o­lent at­tacks on ri­vals.

Two of the de­tainees are linked to op­er­a­tions in Mar­aval, where au­thor­i­ties de­scribe an or­gan­ised crim­i­nal net­work with de­fined lead­er­ship and co­or­di­na­tion roles.

Akel Gra­ham Sealey, al­so called “Big­gie,” was iden­ti­fied as a cen­tral fig­ure and fi­nancier over­see­ing the traf­fick­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion of firearms and nar­cotics, while co­or­di­nat­ing vi­o­lent crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Jysie Horne, al­so called “Za­za” or “Cat,” is de­scribed as a high-rank­ing op­er­a­tive re­spon­si­ble for re­lay­ing in­struc­tions, co­or­di­nat­ing op­er­a­tions and man­ag­ing the move­ment of firearms, nar­cotics and stolen ve­hi­cles, in­clud­ing in sup­port of re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks.

In south Trinidad, Krystof­fer Ali, al­so called “Sticky,” of Princes Town, has been linked to drug traf­fick­ing and ef­forts to re­cruit in­di­vid­u­als in­to a gang struc­ture op­er­at­ing in the Bar­rack­pore dis­trict.

In­tel­li­gence al­so con­nects him to re­peat­ed break-ins at places of wor­ship and pos­ses­sion of co­caine and firearms, point­ing to what au­thor­i­ties de­scribe as an es­ca­la­tion from theft to or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

The sev­en men have all been or­dered de­tained at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma.

The the or­ders cit­ed the need to dis­rupt or­gan­ised gang op­er­a­tions, pre­vent re­tal­ia­to­ry vi­o­lence and re­duce threats to pub­lic safe­ty dur­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency.