Eight men are in cus­tody as­sist­ing of­fi­cers with their in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to gangs, nar­cotics and am­mu­ni­tion dis­cov­er­ies on Fri­day, in var­i­ous polic­ing dis­tricts.

The In­ter-Agency Task Force con­duct­ed op­er­a­tional ex­er­cis­es be­tween the hours of 11.30 am to 7 pm, along Nel­son, George, Dun­can, St. Paul, Gib­son and Small Streets, in known drug block ar­eas.

Three per­sons were ar­rest­ed af­ter they raised the sus­pi­cion of the po­lice, search­es were con­duct­ed and a 21-year-old man, from Old St. Joseph Road, was ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of co­caine while a 29-year-old man from Dan Kel­ly was ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing and a 28-year-old man of Dun­can Street was ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of four rounds of nine-mil­lime­tre am­mu­ni­tion.

A sim­i­lar ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed in the North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion be­tween the hours of 11 pm on May 16th to 5 am, where four per­sons were ar­rest­ed.

The North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Ma­jor Crimes Unit re­ceived in­for­ma­tion on gang ac­tiv­i­ty and of­fi­cers pro­ceed­ed to Tem­ple Street, Spring Vil­lage Val­sayn, where sev­er­al per­sons af­fil­i­at­ed with a gang in the area were as­sem­bled by a pavil­ion. The of­fi­cers con­duct­ed a search of the area and a quan­ti­ty of nar­cotics were dis­cov­ered.

Three men of Spring Vil­lage Val­syn, ages 18, 25 and 40 were ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing while a 46-year-old man, of Ben­ny Lane, St. Au­gus­tine was ar­rest­ed dur­ing a sting op­er­a­tion at an­oth­er lo­ca­tion for pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing.

Around 5:09 am, the North­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force ex­e­cut­ed a search war­rant at the home of a 42-year-old man from Sanchez Street, Mau­si­ca Lands where co­caine was dis­cov­ered the man was ar­rest­ed for Pos­ses­sion of Co­caine.

Over 50 grammes of co­caine was seized from the ex­er­cis­es for use as ev­i­den­tial val­ue.

The Ex­ec­u­tive of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice says it is work­ing on the re­duc­tion of gang vi­o­lence, re­moval of il­le­gal firearms and dis­rupt­ing the traf­fick­ing of nar­cotics as its man­date to dis­man­tle crim­i­nal gangs and drug traf­fick­ers.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue while charges are ex­pect­ed ear­ly next week.