The ac­ti­va­tion of sleep­er cells in To­ba­go is re­spon­si­ble for the re­cent surge in vi­o­lent crimes tor­ment­ing To­ba­go, po­lice say. Le­gal of­fi­cer in the Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit Za­heer Ali told the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty that there are a few ma­jor crim­i­nal gangs with sleep­er cells in var­i­ous parts of T&T.

Ali said this was sig­nif­i­cant in an in­tel­li­gence con­text for To­ba­go, where es­tab­lished gangs are con­tin­u­ing to seek oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ties to es­tab­lish lu­cra­tive drug blocks and easy av­enues for ex­pand­ing their drug and hu­man traf­fick­ing busi­ness­es.

“Based on that in­tel­li­gence, we are see­ing that mi­gra­tion to To­ba­go is re­al­ly look­ing to take charge of a ter­ri­to­ry that can be lu­cra­tive to the gangs,” Ali said. Re­spond­ing to a ques­tion from JSC mem­ber Ran­dall Mitchell on the in­crease of crime in To­ba­go, Ali said he recog­nised that the TTPS may not have ex­plored the An­ti-Gang Act, Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ing) Act, and Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Law En­force­ment Of­fi­cers) Act to the depth it should have.

He said that over the last cou­ple of months, there have been ac­tions against var­i­ous gangs in Trinidad and as­sured the JSC that this ex­tends to To­ba­go con­cern­ing leg­is­la­tion.

Ali said that the TTPS used the An­ti-Gang Act’s de­ten­tion pow­ers and is now ex­plor­ing the statu­to­ry pow­ers to en­sure po­lice get suf­fi­cient and jus­ti­fi­able time with ju­di­cial in­ter­ven­tion to gath­er the ev­i­dence re­quired to con­vict gang­sters.

He said Ap­peal Court Judge Nolan Bereaux was quite cal­cu­lat­ed when speak­ing about en­sur­ing the care­ful com­pi­la­tion of ev­i­dence to bring about a re­al prospect of con­vic­tion.

“We have to strike a bal­ance, but I want to as­sure that chair and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go that we are ex­plor­ing all leg­is­la­tion to en­sure we have con­trol over gangs and gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and more so, this be­ing the sum­mer time when peo­ple will be vis­it­ing To­ba­go,” Ali said.

CoP: Ad­di­tion­al man­pow­er de­ployed on the is­land

Mean­while, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher is as­sur­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans that the TTPS’s fo­cus is on To­ba­go as much as it is on Trinidad, with the Guard and Emer­gency Branch and In­ter-Agency Task Force of­fi­cers now per­ma­nent­ly de­ployed to the is­land. 

Hare­wood-Christo­pher said she de­ployed ad­di­tion­al man­pow­er over the last two months as a con­se­quence of the rise in crimes.

“As of this morn­ing (Mon­day), an­oth­er team of of­fi­cers from the In­ter-Agency Task Force has left to pro­vide train­ing for the front­line of­fi­cers of To­ba­go. That is, to en­sure they are ca­pa­ble and com­pe­tent at do­ing ba­sic road checks and teach­ing them to build their con­fi­dence to con­front per­ceived of­fend­ers. We have been fo­cus­ing on To­ba­go, and we will con­tin­ue to fo­cus. As a mat­ter of fact, we will be meet­ing with the ad­min­is­tra­tion in To­ba­go,” Hare­wood-Christo­pher said.

JSC mem­ber Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy asked if the TTPS could have pre­dict­ed the uptick in gun vi­o­lence in To­ba­go by ex­am­in­ing trends.

DCP In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions Suzette Mar­tin said the TTPS looked at the trends, had in­tel­li­gence, and was work­ing be­hind the scenes on gun vi­o­lence across the coun­try. She said T&T’s bor­ders are porous. “There are a lot of is­sues that are not just TTPS, but we need shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for a na­tion­al is­sue,” Mar­tin said.