The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) says it has dis­rupt­ed a co­or­di­nat­ed plot to harm a law en­force­ment of­fi­cer at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC), fol­low­ing cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, work­ing with Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Suzette Mar­tin, launched a covert tac­ti­cal op­er­a­tion to neu­tralise the threat.

The op­er­a­tion, su­per­vised by Su­per­in­ten­dent Rame­sar, in­volved of­fi­cers from the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Task Force, Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit, and In­ter-Agency Task Force.

Dur­ing the op­er­a­tion, of­fi­cers en­gaged mul­ti­ple sus­pects who at­tempt­ed to evade cap­ture.

Ten in­di­vid­u­als were de­tained and one firearm re­cov­ered.

In a state­ment the TTPS said the threat, which con­tributed to the de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency, is still be­ing mon­i­tored.

Po­lice warn that crim­i­nal net­works con­tin­ue to op­er­ate both in­side and out­side prison walls, and gang af­fil­i­ates out­side cus­tody may still try to car­ry out di­rec­tives from in­car­cer­at­ed lead­ers.

Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro com­mend­ed DCP Mar­tin and Su­per­in­ten­dent Rame­sar for their swift ac­tion, say­ing:

“The TTPS re­mains un­wa­ver­ing in its com­mit­ment to pro­tect our of­fi­cers, ju­di­cial of­fi­cials, and the pub­lic. In­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tions and in­ter-agency syn­er­gy are our strongest as­sets in con­fronting or­ga­nized crim­i­nal threats.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing, and the TTPS has pledged to con­tin­ue de­ci­sive ac­tion to main­tain pub­lic safe­ty and na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty.