The coun­try awoke to the news on Thursday of the ex­e­cu­tion of a no­to­ri­ous crime king­pin who con­trolled a swathe of North Trinidad spread­ing from Las Cuevas to Mara­cas Val­ley with an army of en­forcers stak­ing claim to a size­able por­tion of arms and drug trade.

His killing was one of sev­en peo­ple mur­dered in 12 hours be­tween Wednes­day night and ear­ly yes­ter­day tak­ing the mur­der count to 308 in 206 days.

Angry Sea Lots residents react to police officers following the shooting death of Akini “Dole” Adams yesterday.

Mark Bassant

By ear­ly evening, the ten­sion in an­oth­er crime hotspot threat­ened to un­hinge as Sea Lots res­i­dents open­ly op­posed po­lice of­fi­cers who had shot and killed no­to­ri­ous drug run­ner and Ras­ta City gang lieu­tenant Aki­ni “Dole” Adams and in­jured an­oth­er.

The two gang lead­ers were among 100 peo­ple who were de­tained last week by po­lice af­ter a spike in gang-re­lat­ed mur­ders and pub­lic pres­sure on the Po­lice Ser­vice and the Gov­ern­ment to take de­ci­sive ac­tion.

Se­nior po­lice sources told Guardian Me­dia last night that Adams was linked to the gun at­tack at Las Cuevas and one of the boats stolen from Car­li Bay fish­er­men was used to es­cape.

Vaughn “Sand­man” Mieres was able to op­er­ate for over two decades and take over turf of ri­val gangs with the help of cor­rupt po­lice of­fi­cers and a vil­lage be­hold­en to him.

Po­lice in­tel­li­gence re­ports linked him to the ex­e­cu­tion of sev­er­al peo­ple and a net­work of crim­i­nals in Venezuela and Colom­bia.

Undertakers remove the bodies of the murdered victims Vaughn ‘Sandman’ Mieres and his wife from their home in Las Cuevas n Thursday.

Anisto Alves

His fortress at the top of Her­nan­dez Trace was im­pen­e­tra­ble to his en­e­mies and he sur­round­ed him­self with an army of pro­tec­tors, some of them in­volved in law en­force­ment.

The es­cape was even more in­trigu­ing as the killers fled in two ve­hi­cles, a sta­tion wag­on and an SUV, head­ing to St Michael’s Vil­lage—a dead-end road—torched the get­away ve­hi­cles, near the Las Cuevas Health Cen­tre be­fore scur­ry­ing down a track to a se­clud­ed bay and es­caped in a wait­ing pirogue.

Cam­ou­flage cloth­ing, masks and oth­er items were found strewn along the trail and a pat­tern of foot­prints, re­sem­bling mil­i­tary-style boots were found on the shore.

The hit squad com­pris­ing be­tween six to eight men, armed with as­sault ri­fles, ap­proached the for­ti­fied house from two van­tage points around 2.15 am.

The steep hill lead­ing to the on­ly en­trance to the build­ing snakes around two sharp cor­ners which meet a tow­er­ing steel gate.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors told Guardian Me­dia that the as­sault team pound­ed on the gate say­ing they were po­lice. One res­i­dent claimed that there was a blue flash­ing light near the en­trance.

The mo­ment the gate was opened by one of Mieres’ hench­men, Nigel ‘Blood’ Oc­tim, he was shot sev­er­al times.

An­oth­er as­sault team climbed hilly ter­rain and sneaked in­to the com­pound, killing an­oth­er hench­man who was still ap­par­ent­ly asleep in a ham­mock at the back of the house.

Sandman & wife Letty

Just how the killers en­tered the house, which has steel doors, was un­clear. Po­lice be­lieve the gang climbed to the ve­ran­dah and en­tered the up­per storey to the house through an open door and barged in­to the chil­dren’s bed­room.

The chil­dren fled in­to their par­ents’ bed­room and they all ran to the ground floor with gun­men in pur­suit. Mieres, 44, was cor­nered in a bed­room and tried to hide un­der the bed. His wife, Ali­ka “Let­ty” De­here hid in a walk-in clos­et and called the po­lice.

The at­tack­ers shot Mieres mul­ti­ple times in the chest and head. Half of his skull was blown off, ac­cord­ing to pho­tos shared of the crime scene on What­sApp.

Po­lice con­firmed they heard gun­shots as De­here begged for as­sis­tance. She was shot re­peat­ed­ly and was found slouched in one cor­ner of the clos­et.

The chil­dren—a 16-year-old girl and four-year-old boy—were tak­en to the kitchen area and forced to lie on the ground as their par­ents were mur­dered.

A close rel­a­tive of Mieres told Guardian Me­dia that Mieres was an ail­ing di­a­bet­ic and was re­cent­ly di­ag­nosed with stage four can­cer.

This area was one of routes used by the killers.

Mark Bassant

By dawn, in­for­ma­tion be­gan to spread via What­sApp on the quadru­ple killing. Af­ter sun­rise, the name of the sus­pect emerged as well as the mo­tive for the crime.

Po­lice iden­ti­fied a man by the alias, Shorto, as the mas­ter­mind be­hind the crime and linked him to the June 12, gun at­tack on a ve­hi­cle trans­port­ing two of Mieres’ chil­dren along Bel­mont Cir­cu­lar Road, near Prov­i­dence Girls’ Catholic School, a short dis­tance away from the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion.

The dri­ver of the van trans­port­ing the chil­dren, James Gor­don, of Mara­cas, was al­so shot but man­aged to es­cape by run­ning away.

The burnt vehicles at Las Cuevas yesterday following the murder of Vaughn ‘Sandman’ Mieres at his home. Picture Anisto Alves

Anisto Alves

Shorto, a for­mer af­fil­i­ate of the Mara­cas Bay gang, lead by Mieres, who at one point resided at the house, was re­port­ed­ly shot in friend­ly-fire dur­ing the may­hem.

Po­lice said the in­jured man was dropped off at the St James Med­ical Cen­tre and lat­er tak­en to Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he re­mains ward­ed un­der po­lice guard.

The re­cov­ery of two more bod­ies of fish­er­men who were forced over­board in the Gulf of Paria on Tues­day and the shoot­ing death of a Diego Mar­tin man, iden­ti­fied as Nicholas Lee, were the oth­er mur­ders.