PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro, Monday, said that while the initial threat that led to a state of emergency (SoE) being declared in Trinidad and Tobago has been minimised, “persons are still hell bent on trying to carry out that initial mandate given by their gang leaders”.
Guevarro, speaking on a radio programme here, said that currently “the threat still exists.
“The initial threat was dealt with, which was then, but there are persons outside, if you recognise that there are still 44 persons who we are looking for to execute detention orders on .
“They are not out there playing pitch and dolly house, you know, they are out there committing crime, so we are trying to see if we could rack down on them,” Guevarro told radio listeners, adding “just like police and the media, they (criminals) are also networking in other places with other criminals who are assisting them in carrying our their nefarious intent against Trinidad and Tobago”.
Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on July 18, nearly three months after ending a 105-day state of emergency aimed at addressing criminal activities.
Police Commissioner Guevarro had described the events leading up to the declaration of the SoE as one of “grave concern” telling a news conference then that the police had received intelligence reports “whereby organized criminal gangs with persons inside of the prisons and persons operating on the outside of the prisons have formed themselves into what I would want to term an organized crime syndicate”.
The authorities moved high-risk prisoners to military bases as part of the crackdown on jailed gang leaders accused of using smuggled cellphones to plot a series of assassinations, robberies, and kidnappings with help from criminal associates on the outside.
On July 29, Parliament extended the SoE for a further three months.
During the radio programme on Monday, the top cop dismissed rumours that no one has yet been charged under the existing SoE, saying “several persons have been arrested.
“I am not certain where that narrative has come from,” he said, noting that “persons have been arrested because of particular circumstances in the SoE and being charged, and there are persons who are accused of general offences that would have been outside of the SoE.
“We recorded 612 charges across all the police divisions thus far, 436 serious crimes, including eight murders, 35 kidnappings, 62 robberies, 180 firearm and ammunition offences, 98 minor offences, 33 assaults on police, 36 breaches of the peace, 78 minor crimes, 68 narcotic offences.
“When you look at the breakdown of that, inculcated inside of that are persons who have been arrested because of the SoE for gang-related offences. Persons have been charged and taken to court.
“There are others who are on preventative detention orders that we are dotting the ‘I’s’ and crossing the ‘t’s’ because I don’t want at the end of the SoE just to let those fellows walk out,” he said, adding, “so all of them, as far as I am concerned, should be charged.
“There are a couple of them, who, because of the evidential threshold we may not be able to meet to pass it with the DPP9 Director of Public Prosecutions),” Guevarro said, adding, “we have intelligence and we are trying to evidence it.
“That is the problem, and to evidence it, you need to get collaboration,” he said, appealing to the public to assist law enforcement.
Asked to detail how many people have been charged specifically to the situation that gave rise to the SoE, Guevarro said, while the data he is providing may not be current, “there were 116 prevention detention orders approved, 72 were executed thus far, and 44 are still pending execution.
“There are three persons in custody awaiting approval at this point, and two persons are in custody awaiting execution of the PDOs (PDPDactivedetention orders). Nine detainees have so far challenged their detention before the SoE tribunal,” he told radio listeners.
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