Southern Division police believe they have dented a major drug operation in south Trinidad with the arrest of a 27-year-old US deportee and seizure of four high-powered weapons and over $1.7 million in drugs. After weeks of monitoring the suspect, who was described as a distributor, a team, led by ASP Ali Mohammed, Insp Don Gajadhar and Sgt Dale Ramroop, went to search the suspect’s Hermitage Village home on Tuesday. On entering the house, they allegedly caught the suspect mixing pure cocaine with baking powder in two aluminium pots on a stove.
Police said the cocaine weighed 3.96 kilogrammes and had an estimated street value of $1.6 million. They also seized a bag of marijuana worth approximately $100,000. In another room, officers found an AK-47 assault rifle with two magazines, a Taurus 9mm revolver, a Belgian FN Herstal pistol and a .357 revolver.
In a display at the Police Adminstration Building, San Fernando, yesterday, Gajadhar said the AK-47 rifle is commonly used by militants in war-torn Middle Eastern countries, while one of the pistols was fully automatic and is used by the US Secret Service and FBI. He said the display was to show the public what police are up against while protecting them.
Snr Supt Irwin Hackshaw said the suspect was arrested for a series of crimes in New York and deported to T&T around 2010. He was arrested during the 2011 state of emergency under the Anti Gang Act but subsequently released. While commending officers for living up to acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams’ mandate to increase gun seizures in 2015, Hackshaw noted that guns were continually entering the country through illegal ports.
He identified several areas along the south western peninsular, Moruga and the north coast as illegal transhipment areas and said other national security bodies needed to match the police effort for there to be total success in reducing gun violence. “We can only do that much. As it comes into the country we have our intelligence officers in force, working and trying to get the information. We have our operational team who are performing way beyond the call of duty,” he said.
Ask if they felt they were winning the fight against gun violence, he said: “We have to. We cannot stop. It is an ongoing fight and we have to take care of our borders and curtail the incidents in those areas that illegal arms and drugs pass through. “We have to compliment our function along with the Coast Guard, the customs... we need the support. When that support matches our efforts, we will win the fight against crime and illegal firearms.”