Derek Achong

Two men, who law en­force­ment of­fi­cers claim are gang lead­ers from El So­cor­ro and Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, were among 23 peo­ple who ap­peared in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court yes­ter­day for gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty. Cedric Burke, 36, a con­trac­tor, of Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, plead­ed not guilty when he ap­peared be­fore Chief Mag­is­trate Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar in the Port-of-Spain Court.Burke was charged with be­ing the leader of a gang at Pro­duc­tion Av­enue, Sea Lots. He was ar­rest­ed last Fri­day by of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain CID, led by Se­nior Supt Glenn Hack­ett, while stay­ing at the Hy­att Re­gency, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain.

Burke's dri­ver, Keon Bain, 31, of Third Street, Mar­aval, was al­so ar­rest­ed and charged with be­ing a mem­ber of the gang. Bain, who was dressed in a blue shirt and tie, when he ap­peared in court, al­so plead­ed not guilty to the charge. Af­ter the charge was read, Burke's lawyer, Kirk Hogan, told the court he was con­cerned about his client's liveli­hood. Hogan said Burke was a reg­is­tered con­trac­tor and his com­pa­ny, Burke and Com­pa­ny Ltd, was re­cent­ly award­ed a $300,000 con­struc­tion con­tract from the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help Ltd (NC­SHL).

The NC­SHL falls un­der the purview of the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment. Hogan asked Ay­ers-Cae­sar to ten­der the doc­u­ment, dat­ed Au­gust 23, this year, as part of ev­i­dence. He al­so said since his client's ar­rest, his com­pa­ny had lost one oth­er con­tract. Both men were re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody un­der the pro­vi­sions of the Bail (Amend­ment) Act which de­nies a per­son charged un­der the re­cent­ly-passed An­ti-Gang Act, bail for a pe­ri­od of 120 days. Bain was rep­re­sent­ed by a team of at­tor­neys, in­clud­ing Fitzger­ald Hinds, Wayne Sturge and Mario Mer­ritt.

They were charged by PC No­bel Smith of the Port-of-Spain CID. Both men's mat­ters were ad­journed to Sep­tem­ber 20. Mean­while, a 42-year-old San Juan res­i­dent al­so ap­peared be­fore Ay­ers-Cae­sar yes­ter­day charged with be­ing the leader of a gang. De­vanand Singh, of El So­cor­ro Ex­ten­tion, San Juan, plead­ed not guilty to be­ing a mem­ber of the "De­vanand Gang" when he ap­peared in court yes­ter­day.

Singh was rep­re­sent­ed by Se­nior Coun­sel Theodore Guer­ra. Three oth­er men from the El So­cor­ro area-Don­nie Dook­ie, Ganesh Jages­sar and Mar­vin James-al­so were charged as be­ing mem­bers of the De­vanand's gang.

Dook­ie, who rep­re­sent­ed him­self, said he was a sim­ple farmer. He added: "There are no gangs in El So­cor­ro. The on­ly gangs I know are Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) and CEPEP gangs."

All four men were re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody with their mat­ters be­ing ad­journed to Sep­tem­ber 19. Sev­er­al oth­er al­leged gang mem­bers from al­leged gangs in L'Anse Mi­tan, Care­nage, Co­corite and Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, al­so ap­peared be­fore Ay­ers-Cae­sar and were all re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody. Un­der the An­ti-Gang Act, passed in Par­lia­ment on May 3, this year, a per­son con­vict­ed of be­ing a gang leader will face a max­i­mum penal­ty of 25 years im­pris­on­ment, with mem­bers of gangs fac­ing a ten-year prison term.

All gang-re­lat­ed mat­ters be­fore Ay­ers-Cae­sar were pros­e­cut­ed by po­lice pros­e­cu­tors Sgts Azard Ali and Richard Tay­lor.