A co-ordinated overnight anti-crime strike in Enterprise, Chaguanas went awry yesterday as criminals were reportedly tipped off and police said they did not recover the number of firearms or arrest suspects they expected. For the past month, the Central Trinidad area has experienced an increase in shootings related to gang activity.
Two separate police sources admitted yesterday that sensitive information about the raid was leaked to criminal elements. T&T Guardian was informed by a senior officer that the exercise took days to plan. Because of this, the information was compromised and the police were unable to find the number of high-powered weapons they were expecting to retrieve. “This exercise was a big waste of time,” said one officer who was on the raid.
Another officer who was involved in the exercise said that the leak came from within the police force. He claimed that the officers were not able to retrieve any of the weapons because gang members were informed by police officers of the raid. ACP Carlton Alleyne, who co-ordinated the exercise, said he was not aware of the information that criminals were tipped off. He assured the public that the Police Service was doing all it could to resolve the crime situation in the area.
When asked about the leak, head of the National Operations Centre, Garvin Heerah said he was not aware of any leaks in the operation. However, he said he was not yet briefed on the matter.
T&T Guardian tried to get a comment from Commissioner of Police, Stephen Williams regarding the leak of information. Williams said he had not yet been briefed on the raid and referred questions to acting Deputy Commissioner Glenn Hackett. Hackett was locked in meetings until press time and could not comment.
In an attempt to deal with this spike in crime, from 10 pm Saturday to Sunday at 10 am, officers attached to the Central Division led a collaborative police exercise with more than 250 officers involved in the effort. The T&T Regiment, Coast Guard, Immigration, K-9 Unit, the Inter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emergency Branch, South Western Division, Southern Division, North Eastern Division, Northern Division, the National Operations Centre and Air Support were all involved in the exercise.
The officers mostly focused on the Enterprise area which included Bhagaloo Street, Bhagaloo Street Extension, Crown Trace, Enterprise Street, Circular Drive, and Freedom Street. The exercise was conducted under the supervision of ACP Alleyne, Snr Supt Johnny Abraham, Snr Supt Wayne Boyd, ASP Neil Brandon John, Inspector Terrence Williams, Inspector Teesdale, and Sergeant Jitindra Tooleram.
The officers conducted extensive house to house searches for 12-hours, but all the officers were able to recover from the exercise were two-home made shotguns, two rounds of ammunition and a small quantity of cocaine.
One man was arrested for a quantity of cocaine, one was detained by immigration, four people were arrested in connection to shootings and murders in the area. Another was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle. See pages A5 & A6.