Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

A high-rank­ing To­ba­go gang mem­ber has been de­tained un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2024. Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds is­sued a de­ten­tion or­der for Shane Ben­i­to, al­so known as Gor­gy, cit­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

Ben­i­to, iden­ti­fied as a key fig­ure in the To­ba­go fac­tion of the Ras­ta City or 7 Gang, is ac­cused of traf­fick­ing nar­cotics and ac­quir­ing high-pow­ered firearms to car­ry out vi­o­lent crimes, in­clud­ing mur­der. Ac­cord­ing to the de­ten­tion or­der, he al­leged­ly planned and pro­cured weapons to ex­e­cute vi­o­lent acts that posed a threat to pub­lic safe­ty and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

Ben­i­to, who has ad­dress­es in Union Ply­mouth Road, To­ba­go, and St Michael Vil­lage, Las Cuevas, is be­ing held at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in Ari­ma.

His de­ten­tion comes amid grow­ing con­cerns over crime and gang ac­tiv­i­ty on the is­land. Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine re­cent­ly re­vealed that To­ba­go has 28 gangs.

How­ev­er, head of the To­ba­go Po­lice Di­vi­sion ACP Os­wain Subero told Guardian Me­dia that while firearms and drug-re­lat­ed crimes re­main To­ba­go’s biggest chal­lenges, he could not con­firm the re­port­ed num­ber of gangs.

“We are fo­cused on drug blocks, the is­sues of drugs and firearms in To­ba­go—that is where our at­ten­tion is. The is­sues of the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of gangs, I don’t have that in­for­ma­tion that there are 28 gangs. What we know is there is an is­sue of firearms and drugs in To­ba­go, but I can­not say or con­firm there are 28 gangs,” he said.

“We have been fo­cused on mak­ing small changes be­cause the ap­pa­ra­tus that was here be­fore was well set up, and we are do­ing lit­tle things to make small changes. To­ba­go, pri­or, was do­ing well mi­nus the homi­cide. We are work­ing on that now. The of­fi­cers are com­mit­ted just as they were be­fore.” He added that po­lice ef­forts are fo­cused on dis­man­tling drug op­er­a­tions and tack­ling il­le­gal firearm pos­ses­sion to pre­vent fur­ther gang ex­pan­sion and vi­o­lent crime.”