An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice of­fi­cers in the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion con­tin­ued the search yes­ter­day for sev­er­al men af­ter Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDO) un­der the State of Emer­gency were is­sued for them.

The men are Ka­reem King; Nathaniel “Shir­ty” Shep­pherd; Raphael “Plup­py” St Rose; Khalfi­ni “Kosi” Smith; Kyle “Dra­co” Far­rell; Maliq “Mad Dog” Fer­di­nand; Nir­mal Ma­hadeo and Ter­rence “Ice” Mal­oney.

The PDOs, signed un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions 2025, au­tho­rised the ar­rest of in­di­vid­u­als be­lieved to be in­volved in vi­o­lent crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, in­clud­ing an al­leged plot to car­ry out an as­sas­si­na­tion in Barataria.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der con­firmed the or­ders were signed on Wednes­day and cit­ed cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence point­ing to an im­mi­nent threat to pub­lic safe­ty and gang-re­lat­ed vi­o­lence.

The search for the men start­ed on Wednes­day dur­ing and an­ti-gang op­er­a­tion su­per­vised by ASP Cadette. Of­fi­cers from sev­er­al units on the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice par­tic­i­pat­ed in the ex­er­cise and con­cen­trat­ed their ef­forts in the St Barb’s area, where they were tar­get­ing ten known Ras­ta City/Sev­en Gang mem­bers who are sus­pect­ed of com­mit­ted sev­er­al vi­o­lent of­fences.

Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials claimed the sus­pects were part of a net­work linked to re­cent flare-ups in gang war­fare across sev­er­al ar­eas—and that the de­ci­sion to is­sue the PDOs was part of in­ten­si­fied ac­tion to dis­man­tle or­gan­ised crime.

Of­fi­cers from the Port-of-Spain Task Force; the In­ter Agency Task Force; the K9 Unit and the Bel­mont CID searched sev­er­al hous­es and known drug blocks.

Al­though no one was ar­rest­ed, of­fi­cers re­cov­ered 150 grammes of mar­i­jua­na in an aban­doned build­ing along St Barb’s Road, Port-of-Spain.