A Venezue­lan na­tion­al used the name of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der when of­fi­cers ar­rest­ed him in Store Bay, To­ba­go, yes­ter­day.

The ar­rest forced the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty to is­sue a clar­i­fi­ca­tion, and po­lice sources con­firmed that the name was fake and used to mis­lead of­fi­cers.

Of­fi­cers held the man around 10 am at the Store Bay Beach Fa­cil­i­ty af­ter they re­ceived re­ports of loud gun­shots.

ACP Subero, Snr Supt Earl Elie and of­fi­cers of the Crown Point Po­lice and Task Force re­spond­ed.

They said the sus­pect ran along Store Bay Lo­cal Road, then to Mer­chant­man Av­enue, be­fore re­turn­ing to the beach where they caught him.

Po­lice searched him and re­cov­ered a pis­tol but found no am­mu­ni­tion.

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty lat­er con­firmed the sus­pect was not Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der. The min­istry al­so crit­i­cised mis­lead­ing news head­lines on so­cial me­dia that sug­gest­ed oth­er­wise, say­ing they cre­at­ed con­fu­sion and could dam­age the re­al Roger Alexan­der’s rep­u­ta­tion.

19 Venezue­lans held

A Point Fortin man and 19 Venezue­lan na­tion­als who en­tered the coun­try il­le­gal­ly were ar­rest­ed Sat­ur­day dur­ing an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions by of­fi­cers of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion.

In the first in­ci­dent, a 30-year-old Point Fortin man was tak­en in­to cus­tody af­ter po­lice found five Venezue­lans, ages 21 to 33, at his home. The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed by of­fi­cers of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force and Point Fortin CID.

Lat­er that night in the Erin dis­trict, of­fi­cers of the Ma­rine In­ter­dic­tion Unit dis­cov­ered 14 Venezue­lans, ages five to 40, hid­ing be­hind a pirogue on a beach. They were hand­ed over to of­fi­cers of the Erin Po­lice Sta­tion.

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion and the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty were con­tact­ed fol­low­ing the ar­rests.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.