Northern Division officers believe a deadly batch of crack cocaine may be the cause for two homeless people dying.
Head of the Division Snr Supt David Abraham said yesterday while the toxicology reports on both men have not been completed, the officers believe that tainted cocaine may have caused the deaths of the men.
On February 8, the body of a homeless man was found under the Grand Bazaar overpass.
Close to two weeks later Joel “Cruz” Benjamin was found at an abandoned shack on Agostini St, St Augustine, on Carnival Tuesday.
Both men were found without pants and underpants.
At first officers suspected that there may have been a serial killer targeting homeless men. That theory was quashed when autopsies did not discover any foul play in the men’s death.
The body of a third homeless man was discovered near the Caroni Bird Sanctuary yesterday.
Police reports state that around 7 am yesterday Cpl Dwarika and PC Mc Intyre were on mobile patrol when they saw the man’s body. Police said the man was of African descent, in his late 40’s and was very unkempt.
Snr Supt Ansley Garrick, head of the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau said yesterday, the assumption of a deadly cocaine mixture may be a bit premature.
Garrick said in the absence of the toxicology report it was impossible to suggest a cause of death for the men.
He said cocaine itself was toxic and therefore harmful to the body and if mixed with other poisonous substances like arsenic, rat poison or cyanide it would be deadly. He said the suggestion was “searching for a needle in the ocean” but was not totally dismissive of the possibility that tainted cocaine might have led to the deaths of the three men.
Pathologist Hughvon Des Vignes said the reports on two of the bodies showed they died of natural causes.