Shane Su­perville

Sev­en men, in­clud­ing sus­pect­ed gang mem­bers, are in po­lice cus­tody fol­low­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in Pi­ar­co ear­ly on Wednes­day morn­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to a TTPS me­dia re­lease, of­fi­cers of the North-Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and sol­diers from the TT Reg­i­ment went to Orop­une Gar­dens be­tween 4 am and 6.45 am, where they ar­rest­ed sev­en men un­der Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs).

The re­lease said the ex­er­cise was in­tel­li­gence-led and part of on­go­ing ef­forts to quell crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in the North­ern Di­vi­sion.

A source told Guardian Me­dia the sus­pect­ed gang mem­bers are be­lieved to be part of a Mus­lim gang op­er­at­ing in the area.

The ex­er­cise al­so in­volved of­fi­cers of the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), the Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB), the North-Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Gang Unit, the Tu­na­puna CID and the Arou­ca CID.